A CONMAN who fooled the art world by selling forgeries – created by his son in thefamily’s garden shed – has died at the age of 91.

Pensioner George Greenhalgh fronted the sales operation of the fakes – produced by master-forger Shaun Greenhalgh – at their home in The Crescent in Bromley Cross.

The pair’s biggest sale came in 2003 when George convinced Bolton Museum that his son’s alabaster copy of the Amarna Princess was 3,000 years old and worth £440,000.

The OAP told Bolton Council that he had inherited the sculpture, which depicted a relation of the Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun.

Another prize sale for the “artful codger” – as he became known – saw the Institute of Art in Chicago pay £180,000 to a third party for another sculpture – The Faun.

It was supposedly a ceramic work by French painter Paul Gauguin – but was in fact another product of the garden-shed production line in Bromley Cross.

The family were immortalised in a Channel 4 Cutting Edge documentary which featured insights from Bromley Cross residents.

Paul Noble, aged 58, whose window cleaner dad featured in the show, said: “I think my dad actually told them to carry on carving – I think he saw it as a very impressive feat and that’s what I think as well.

“They managed to fool everyone.”

Bromley Cross councillor Alan Wilkinson added: “George was quite a character and I think he will definitely be remembered after his involvement in what was one of the biggest stories in these parts.”

Other organisations duped by the duo included The Henry Moore Institute and auction house Sotheby’s.

It is estimated that the family raked in about £850,000 from their various cons – which took place over an astonishing 20 year period.

They were described by police as “possibly the most diverse forgery team in the world”.

But the pair came unstuck in 2005, when a minor error in a supposedly ancient Assyrian tablet produced by Shaun was spotted by the British Museum.

Police raided the family home and found a host of fakes, including three of Shaun’s previous attempts at creating the Amarna Princess.

After admitting fraud and money laundering at Bolton Crown Court in 2007, Shaun Greenhalgh was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison.

George and his wife Olive were both given suspended sentences for their roles in the con which ran from 1986 to 2006.

The family also had assets of £404,250 confiscated by the court and they were ordered to pay £363,000 to Bolton Museum.

George’s funeral takes place at 2pm on Monday, November 10, at Christ Church, Walmsley, in Blackburn Road, Egerton.