07-20-2019, 12:16 AM
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-ma...r-49043368
A fraudster who conned the art world has told museum staff that he regrets duping experts with a fake statue.
Bolton Museum paid £440,000 for the Amarna Princess figure, believing it had acquired a 3,300-year-old artefact.
But the statue of the granddaughter of King Tutankhamun was actually created by prolific forger Shaun Greenhalgh in his garden shed.
Greenhalgh said he felt "bad" but stopped short of apologising when he visited the museum for a documentary.
Over a 17-year period, Greenhalgh and his elderly parents sold hundreds of fakes they passed off as the genuine article, earning at least £850,000.
The scam unravelled when mistakes in Egyptian script were spotted on stonework by experts at the British Museum and Greenhalgh, then 47, was jailed in 2007 at Bolton Crown Court.
Wow, he was clearly quite a skilled craftsman if he was able to create these forgeries and sell them off for such a high price. It's a real shame: he could have made a living by creating genuine works. But, instead, he chose to go down this route ...
Now that his prison sentence is over, I hope he uses his talents more wisely.
A fraudster who conned the art world has told museum staff that he regrets duping experts with a fake statue.
Bolton Museum paid £440,000 for the Amarna Princess figure, believing it had acquired a 3,300-year-old artefact.
But the statue of the granddaughter of King Tutankhamun was actually created by prolific forger Shaun Greenhalgh in his garden shed.
Greenhalgh said he felt "bad" but stopped short of apologising when he visited the museum for a documentary.
Over a 17-year period, Greenhalgh and his elderly parents sold hundreds of fakes they passed off as the genuine article, earning at least £850,000.
The scam unravelled when mistakes in Egyptian script were spotted on stonework by experts at the British Museum and Greenhalgh, then 47, was jailed in 2007 at Bolton Crown Court.
Wow, he was clearly quite a skilled craftsman if he was able to create these forgeries and sell them off for such a high price. It's a real shame: he could have made a living by creating genuine works. But, instead, he chose to go down this route ...
Now that his prison sentence is over, I hope he uses his talents more wisely.
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