Amarna statuette fraudsters sentenced

This story has generated quite a lot of interest in the UK.

International Herald Tribune

A court in northern England sentenced an antique dealer to prison Friday for churning out statues, paintings and other art works and passing the sophisticated fakes off as priceless works of art.

Judge William Morris sentenced Shaun Greenhalgh, 47, of Bolton, to four years and eight months while giving his mother, Olive, 83, a suspended term of 12 months. Greenhalgh's father, George, 84, will be sentenced later.

All three pleaded guilty earlier this year to defrauding art institutions and other buyers over a period of 17 years.

They had also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder the proceeds from the sale of a fake Egyptian statuette to city of Bolton.

The creations made by the Greenhalghs also included Assyrian stone reliefs, a Celtic kilt brooch, and several copies of paintings by American artist Henry Moran. . . .

The family's biggest sale was the Amarna Princess, a 20.5 inch (527 centimeter) statuette depicting one of the daughters of Queen Nefertiti, the mother of King Tutankhamun. It was sold for 440,000 pounds (US$902,678, €616,217) to the Bolton Museum in 2003.

Two real Amarna statuettes exist. One is in the Louvre in Paris while the other is at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia.

The scheme unraveled when the family presented three Assyrian stone reliefs to the British Museum in 2005. Experts doubted their authenticity, noting the horses' reins were not consistent with other Assyrian reliefs and that there were misspellings in the Cuneiform script inscribed on the work.

BBC News

This is quite an interesting look at the trio recently found guilty of passing off a fake Amarna statuette as the genuine article, and selling it to Bolton Museum.

Detective Sergeant Vernon Rapley, from the Met's Art and Antiques Unit, said investigators found half a million pounds in the Greenhalghs' bank account, and believe they probably made much more.

But he said they did not appear to have been motivated by money.

He said: "They didn't own a computer or live in luxury; they were living in abject poverty, a very poor lifestyle, very basic. Olive hadn't even travelled outside of Bolton.

"They had a resentment of the art market and wanted to prove they could deceive it."

"Shaun Greenhalgh felt he was a better artist than he would ever get recognition for and developed a general hatred of the art market and the art establishment.

And on Guardian Unlimted:

Greenhalgh, 47, his father, George, 84, and mother, Olive, 83, admitted conspiring to defraud art institutions between June 1989 and March 2006. She was given a suspended jail term of 12 months, while her husband will be sentenced later.

Their cottage industry did not confine itself to Egyptology, but produced artifacts ranging from a Roman plate to a goose supposedly sculpted by Barbara Hepworth. According to the Metropolitan police arts and antiques unit, the trio may have worked less for profit than to shame the art world.

"We believe Shaun is a failed creator who had no success selling his work because, as he saw it, he had not been to art school and did not know the right people," said Detective Sergeant Vernon Rapley. "He realised he could make more money conning the art market. He wanted to show them up, and to a degree he succeeded."

"The antiquities and art were produced by Shaun Greenhalgh and sold by George Greenhalgh with, from time to time, the assistance of his mother Olive," said Peter Cadwallader, prosecuting, at Bolton crown court.

"It appears that, although gifted as an artist, Shaun Greenhalgh was not a salesman. His father, in particular, fulfilled that role admirably, and fooled experts from all the great auction houses and other experts from Leeds to Vienna and from London to New York."

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