‘Artful Codger’ avoids time in prison
Wheelchair user George Greenhalgh, 84 — dubbed the “artful codger” — was given a two-year suspended jail sentence at Bolton Crown Court.
Greenhalgh would turn up in his wheelchair at art houses and museums claiming to have found or inherited the objects.
They had been faked using art and history books by his son Shaun working in the garden shed at the family’s modest, terraced home in Bolton, Greater Manchester.
Forgeries made by the family netted them at least £850,000 (€1.14m), the court heard, with Greenhalgh using the ruse to fool art experts for almost 18 years.
The family were ordered to pay back more than £400,000 in compensation.
Judge William Morris told the court that the prison service could not look after Greenhalgh humanely because of his age and infirmity — otherwise he would be going to prison.
“You and your son and wife, over a period of 17 years, conspired together to deceive the art world and the world of antiquities, galleries, museums, auction houses, experts and collectors, both private and public,” Judge Morris told the defendant.
“Yours was a subordinate but very important role in this conspiracy.”
The family made a fortune by George Greenhalgh turning up at art galleries and institutions with “antiques” and asking stunned experts if his heirloom was worth anything.
Shaun Greenhalgh was an expert forger, the court heard, with undoubted talent — but thoroughly dishonest.
One of his most daring achievements was convincing the council-owned Bolton Museum to part with £440,000 (€590,000) for the Princess Amarna statuette. The 20-inch piece was authenticated by the
Egyptology department at Christie’s and the British Museum as 3,300 years-old and purportedly a figurine of the daughter of Pharaoh Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti, the mother of King Tutankhamun.
In fact it had been made by Shaun Greenhalgh in his shed over a three-week period.
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