Art forger fooled the museums !!

[ageezer]

November 16, 2007
Octogenarian art-forgers brought to justice
George Greenhalgh, 83 and Olive Greenhalgh, 82

(Peter Byrne/PA)

George Greenhalgh, 84, and 82-year-old Olive Greenhalgh were found guilty along with their son Shaun, 47
Hannah Strange

An octogenarian and her son were jailed today after perpetrating an £850,000 conspiracy to defraud art institutions with fake antiquities and artworks produced in their Bolton council house and garden shed.

Olive Greenhalgh, 82, received a 12 month sentence suspended for two years for her role in the scam, while her son Shaun Greenhalgh, 47, was jailed for four years and eight months.

Mrs Greenhalgh’s husband George, 84, who attended Bolton Crown Court in a wheelchair, will be sentenced at a later date over his involvement in the fraud to give the judge time to consider whether his frail condition would allow him to serve a custodial sentence.

In what Judge Morris described as an “ambitious conspiracy” conducted with no resources, the family operated a major cottage industry from their three bedroom home, producing up to 120 fakes including Henry Moore statues, Roman plates and copies of paintings by LS Lowry.
Multimedia

* The Greenhalgh Collection

In their greatest coup, Shaun Greenhalgh “knocked up” a fake Egyptian statue in just three weeks in his garden shed, a piece which, astonishingly, was authenticated by the British Museum and valued by the Egyptology Department at Christie’s at £500,000. The Princess Amarna statuette was snapped up by Bolton Museum for the sum of £440,000 in 2002 and displayed until the plot was uncovered in 2006.

The court heard that the mastermind behind the forgeries was Shaun Greenhalgh, who displayed remarkable artistic talent. However his elderly parents also played crucial roles in establishing fraudulent histories for the pieces and selling them to galleries and collectors.

George Greenhalgh, a former technical drawing teacher, was the frontman who would turn up in his wheelchair to ask experts to identify his “discoveries”, while his wife once claimed a forged LS Lowry had been given to her as a 21st birthday present by her father.

Detective Constable Ian Lawson, of Scotland Yard’s arts and antiques unit, said Shaun Greenhalgh was not motivated by greed, but by a desire to embarrass the art world. Despite their profits being estimated by the judge at £850,000, the court heard that they continued to live a basic lifestyle.

He said: “He thought he was having it over a lot of people that should have known better. It is more of a resentment of the art world - to prove that they could do it.”

After his arrest the creator boasted to detectives that he could produce Thomas Moran landscape, worth up to £10,000, in just 30 minutes.

Other British artists he imitated included Samuel Peploe and the sculptor Barbara Hepworth.

The family also created astonishingly convincing works that purported to be thousands of years old, but it was this aspect of the venture that ultimately led to their downfall.

The Greenhalghs had already sold one Roman plate to the British Museum as an 18th or 19th century replica, but when they turned up with three Assyrian reliefs in 2005, the museum’s experts were unconvinced. After spotting a spelling mistake in the text and noticing that ancient horses were wearing modern equipment, the police were called in and their plot began to unravel.

When the family home was searched in March 2006, detectives were stunned to discover that the modest home concealed an elaborate forgery factory well-stocked with raw materials such as Roman glass and silver coins. Watercolours were hidden in wardrobes, half-finished statues dotted the kitchen and a furnace for melting precious metals was on top of the fridge.

Detective Sergeant Vernon Rapley said it was possible that the full extent of the family’s prodigious output had yet to be uncovered, because as many as 100 forged pieces could still be in circulation.

Expressing detectives’ shock at the audacity of the plot, he added: “It does show a real skill with no resources and no real facilities behind you to produce things like this.”

Outside court, Stephanie Crossley, assistant director of adult services at Bolton council, said the whole incident had been “regrettable but the council carefully followed established practice in the purchase of the statue”.

She said: “We welcome the judge’s comments. He said that we were victims of the ’most clever deception’. The museum did not rely on its own judgment. He said that he could see no criticism of Bolton Museum in what it had done and no criticism of any individual.

“Our staff acted entirely correctly following best practice and procedures as laid down in the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council guidelines and the statue was evaluated in accordance with museum practice and the demands of the funding bodies."

It is understood a confiscation and forfeiture hearing related to the case will take place at Bolton Crown Court on January 25 next year.

[ageezer]

amazing story !



Family con that fooled the art world
Deborah Linton
16/11/2007

A TALENTED forger who created fake masterpieces in his council home and then sold them to museums and art collectors with the help of his elderly parents was behind bars last night.

Shaun Greenhalgh, 47, was jailed for four years and eight months yesterday, and his mother, Olive Greenhalgh, 83, was given a 12-month suspended sentence after police uncovered an ambitious forgeries scam being run with Shaun's father George from their Bolton council house.

Shaun, an unknown and self-taught artist who has spent most of his adult life caring for his parents, replicated ancient relics and the works of master artists in a major cottage industry at the Bromley Croft terrace, Bolton Crown Court heard.

His wheelchair-bound father, George, 84 - who is still to be sentenced for his involvement - was the front of the operation, and approached world-renowned art galleries and auction houses, including the British Museum, Tate Modern and Christie's, to buy the works.

Judge William Morris estimated that they had raked in £850,000 from the 17-year "ambitious conspiracy" but in total they had attempted to sell £2 million worth of art works.

Peter Cadwallader, prosecuting, told the court of the cunning deception that had taken place.

He said: "It did not just rely on the quality of Shaun Greenhalgh's work or George Greenhalgh's salemanship. The conspiracists throughout the enterprise took great care to provide a provenance for the work that would be plausible and would stand up to scrutiny. That required careful research on their part."

The court heard how the Greenhalghes carried out meticulous research before George brazenly approached galleries and auction houses using Olive's maiden name, Roscoe, and claiming to be in possession of masterpieces and missing local treasures that they claimed were family heirlooms.

Mr Cadwallader said the intricate forgeries showed "enormous skill" on Shaun's part.

In many cases the items they offered for sale were found to be forgeries but they protected themselves from suspicion by their elaborate cover story and the fact that the elderly George Greenhalgh appeared so plausible.

One of their greatest stings came when they approached Bolton Museum with the Amarna Princess an "Egyptian masterpiece" said to be 3300 years old and to depict the daughter of Pharaoh Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti.

In fact, it had been knocked together in the space of three weeks by Shaun Greenhalgh, working in his garden shed.

After visiting the family's home, Angela Thomas, of the Museum, described George as "a nice old man who had no idea of the significance of what he owned", the court heard.

The Amarna Princes was bought for £440,000 and went on display at the museum.

Sentencing, Judge Morris said: "This was an ambitious conspiracy of long duration based on an undoubted talent in Shaun Greenhalgh and the sophistication of the deception underpinning your sales."

He said the unsuccessful attempts to sell other figures were a significant feature of the long-lasting conspiracy, and far more money would have been made had they been successful.

He said: "Bolton Museum and Art Gallery were the victims of a most clever and sophisticated deception."

The Judge added that the Museum did not rely on its own judgment to purchase a Princess Amarna, but that of the Egyptology department at Christie's auctioneers and the British Museum, which both ruled it as an original.

He added: "That purchase at the time appeared sensible and was acclaimed as a coup. I see no criticism whatever of the art gallery in Bolton, neither of any individual involved."

Judge Morris told Shaun that he had misdirected his talents.

Defending Shaun Greenhalgh, Andrew Nuttall said: "The defendant fully understands that he has abused his own talents and perpetrated a number of very stupid acts."

George Greenhalgh's sentencing was adjourned for medical reports, but the judge said he was considering a custodial sentence.

Outside court, Stephanie Crossley, assistant director of adult services at Bolton council, said the whole incident had been "regrettable" but that no blame could be attached to staff at the museum for falling victim to the fraud involving the Amarna Princess statue.

She said: "The statue was purchased for £440,000 from a member of the Greenhalgh family in 2003 using funds from various bodies, including a National Heritage Memorial Fund (£360,000), The Arts Fund (£75,000), Friends of Bolton Museum (£2,500) and the JB Gass Trust (£1,500). No money was given by Bolton council towards the purchase.

"We have fully cooperated with the Metropolitan Police's Art and Antiques Unit during this investigation and congratulate the police on the successful outcome of their investigation."

[veronasteve]

should turn this into a film.