V&A museum in London displays Bolton forgeries
11:00am Saturday 23rd January 2010 in News
V&A museum in London displays Bolton forgeries
THE art fakes of a master forger from Bolton — and a replica of the garden shed in which they were made — have gone on display at a unique exhibition.
Forgeries by Shaun Greenhalgh, the most famous of which is the Amarna Princess statuette, now form the centrepiece of the Fakes and Forgeries exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London which opened today.
The Amarna Princess, pictured, was bought by Bolton Council for £440,000 but was later revealed as a fake .
The largest item on display is the recreation of Greenhalgh’s garden shed from which he designed and made the fakes that fooled the art world.
The shed contains actual items which the police seized from the original Greenhalgh shed in The Crescent, Bromley Cross.
Items include: l Early attempts at the Amarna Princess and a large block of alabaster stone l A fake Assyrian relief l A fake abstract Popova painting l A telescope which Greenhalgh’s father, George Greenhalgh, told detectives was from the Carpathia ship which witnessed the sinking of the Titanic l Magazines and books which police suspect Greenhalgh used as inspiration for his criminal plans.
The Metropolitan Police has held the exhibition to raise awareness of fraud.
Detective Constable Ian Lawson, of the Met’s Arts and Antiquities Unit, was on the team which brought Greenhalgh to justice.
He said: “Shaun Greenhalgh may not have been the most prolific forger in the world but he did create the most diverse cross section of items.
“From paintings and drawings to a range of sculptures and reliefs, he could turn his hand to just about anything, and that’s probably what made him unique.”
Det Con Lawson said they wanted to raise awareness of fakes and forgeries and the issues surrounding them to prevent crime in the future.
He added: “Hopefully, by making people more aware of the dangers they face and the methods used, people will be able to protect against it.
“I think there’s a bigger picture that people need to look at. It’s not just about deceiving a couple of museums and experts. There are victims who lost money and there are people who go to museums and expect to be looking at the genuine article. All those people who visited the Bolton Museum to see the Amarna Princess were deceived by Shaun Greenhalgh.”
The statue was passed off as a family heirloom bought in a sale of items belonging to the Earl of Egremont in 1892 and sold to Bolton Council after being authenticated by experts at Christie’s auction house and the British Museum, who believed it was around 3,300 years old.
It was revealed as a fake in 2006 and the story was broken by the Bolton Evening News.
Greenhalgh, currently serving a four-year jail term, has only ever spoken publicly to The Bolton News when in January this year he expressed regret for causing embarrassment to Bolton Museum and Art Gallery and backed the possible return of the statue to his home town.
Greenhalgh emulated the work of history’s most revered artists and sculptors from the small home he shared with his elderly parents.
It took him just three weeks to make the Amarna Princess, which stood proudly in Bolton Museum for two years.
Concerns over the authenticity of the alabaster carved figure were first raised in March, 2006, when the British Museum reported the arrival of a suspicious Syrian sculpture.
The Amarna Princess was subsequently closely examined, and found to be fake.
Greenhalgh, aged 48, was jailed in 2007 after pleading guilty to conspiracy to defraud and money laundering.
Investigations revealed he and his parents had cheated numerous art institutions over the course of 17 years, faking work by LS Lowry, Bolton-born artist Thomas Moran, and artist and sculptor Paul Gauguin.
Police says dozens of forgeries may still be in exhibitions across the world.
More than 100 exhibits of fakes are now on display at the Met exhibition, including forgeries of well-known paintings and sculptures, the originals of which are worth millions.
Items include fake Banksy prints, John Myatt and Robert Thwaites paintings and forged Ashley Russell silverware.
The exhibition also showcases other items by Greenhalgh, including Risley Park Lanx, Barbara Hepworth Goose and Thomas Moran paintings.
