[MSN] Four on fake statue charge

[Museum Security Network Mailing list]

      Four on fake statue charge

23/ 4/2007

FOUR family members - two in their 80s - have been charged over the sale 
of a fake Egyptian statue once thought to be worth £1m.

The Amarna Princess, said to represent King Tutankhamun's sister, was 
thought to be about 3,300 years old.

It was bought by Bolton council for £440,000 in September 2003.

However, experts last year declared the 20in sculpture a fake.

Officers from the Metropolitan Police's Art and Antiques Unit removed 
the statue last March after concerns were raised about a Syrian 
sculpture which had arrived at the British Museum in London.

Police have now charged George Greenhalgh, 84, Olive Greenhalgh, 82, and 
their sons, George Jnr, 52, and Shaun, in his 40s, over the sale of fake 
antiques.

All four live together in The Crescent, Bromley Cross, Bolton. An 
anonymous seller claimed their great grandfather had bought the statue 
from an earl in 1892 and had taken it to his Bolton home.

The private collector expressed a wish for the Amarna Princess to return 
to the town.

Only two similar pieces are thought to exist - one in the Louvre and the 
other in a museum in Philadelphia.

The council paid for the `bargain' with the help of £360,000 from the 
National Heritage Memorial Fund, £75,000 from the National Art 
Collections Fund and £2,500 from the Friends of Bolton Museum and Art 
Gallery.

The statue went on display in the town's museum after being featured at 
a London exhibition opened by the Queen. George Greenhalgh, the father, 
Olive Greenhalgh and Shaun Greenhalgh are accused of conspiracy to 
defraud, including allegedly selling faked and forged works of arts as 
genuine between 1989 and 2006.

They are also charged with money laundering fake arts and antiques and 
the proceeds of the sales from the antiques. George Greenhalgh senior 
and Shaun Greenhalgh face an additional charge of laundering the 
proceeds of the sale of the Princess.

George Greenhalgh, the son, is charged with money laundering fake arts 
and antiques and the proceeds of the sales from the antiques.

The four are due to appear before Bolton magistrates on Thursday.

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk