Shaun Greenhalgh - Known Forgeries

Known Forgeries

Forty-four forgeries were discussed during the trial, and 120 were known to have been presented to various institutions. However, given the family's bank records only extended back for a third of the period they were operating, and Shaun Greenhalgh's high level of productivity, there are probably many more. On raiding the Greenhalgh home police discovered many raw materials and "scores of sculptures, paintings and artefacts, hidden in wardrobes, under their bed and in the garden shed." In fact, "there can be little doubt that there are a number of forgeries still circulating within the art market."

A description of known forgeries includes the following:

• 1989. Eadred Reliquery. A small 10th century silver vessel, containing a relic of the true cross of Jerusalem. George Greenhalgh turned up "dripping wet" at Manchester University, claiming he'd found it in a river terrace, at Preston. University determined vessel was a fake; but unsure about the wood. Purchased it for a £100. The subject of an academic thesis.

• 1990. Samuel Peploe still life painting, purportedly inherited from Olive's grandfather, sold for £20,000. However, paint began to flake off and buyer cancelled cheque. Scotland Yard failed to make an arrest at the time due to "organisational restraints."

• 1992. The Risley Park Lanx A Roman silver plate bought for £100,000 by private buyers and donated to the British Museum, who displayed it as genuine replica.

• 1993 and 1994. Thomas Moran sketch and watercolour acquired by Bolton Museum. "The former was a gift given by the Greenhalghs; the latter was purchased for £10,000."

• 1994. The Faun. A ceramic sculpture by Paul Gauguin. Authenticated by the Wildenstein Institute, sold at Sothebys auction in 1994 for £20,700 to private London dealers, Howie & Pillar. Bought by the Art Institute of Chicago in 1997 for $125,000. On display until October 2007.

• 1995. Anglo-Saxon ring. Tried to sell it through Phillips Auctioneers; determined by British Museum to be a fake.

• 1995. Twenty-four Thomas Moran sketches sold in New York. Possibly of landscapes of Yellowstone Park in the United States. Police believe up to 40, worth up to £10,000, were created by Greenhalgh, six or seven of which are unaccounted for. He claimed each one only took him thirty minutes to forge, and that a former mayor of Bolton had given them to an ancestor of his who worked for the mayor as a cleaner.

• L S Lowry. The Meeting House. A pastel, one of a "clutch of paintings" by Lowry. The Greenhalghs claimed it was a 21st birthday present by Olive's gallery owner father, and even that some were gifted by Lowry himself. They had copied letters from the artist, inserting their names in to make it look like they were great friends. For example, this letter dated 16 June 1946:

  Dear George, Thank you very much for your recent letter and cheque for the paintings. I have about finished the but I will hold onto it untill I am(?) ready. I will slip round to the yard on Wed. L S Lowry. Received 45.0.0 for paintings

  One of the Lowrys, perhaps the one mentioned above, sold as a replica, for somewhere between "several hundred pounds" and £5,000. Eventually, put up for auction by new owners in Kent as genuine item, for £70,000.

• 1999. Two gold Roman ornaments. George Greenhalgh withdrew them from Christies when the auction house wanted to do a scientific analysis on them.

• Barbara Hepworth goose sculpture. Only a photograph known to exist, before item lost in the late 1920s. The Greehalghs claimed it was gifted to the family "by the curator of a museum in Leeds" in the 1950s. Worth approximately £200,000 it was later sold to the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds for £3,000.

• Work by Otto Dix. Stolen from Dresden in 1939. Apparently recovered by the Greenhalghs then presented to the Tate Gallery .

• Work by Brancusi.

• Work by Man Ray.

• Another Paul Gauguin, a vase.

• Ancient Celtic Fibula

• Horatio Greenough. Bust of Thomas Jefferson, sold at Sotheby's for £48,000. And/or Thomas Chatterton Another bust of John Adam. Sold together at Sothebys for 160,000.

• Henry Moore. A carved stone head by Henry Moore, which Greenhalgh Snr tried to convince the Tate Modern, London to buy, claiming to have got it via his grandmother.

• 2003 Amarna Princess, a statuette. In the family for "a hundred years." Authenticated by the British Museum and Sothebys, bought by Bolton Museum for £440,000, it was on display for three years. A police raid on the Greenhalgh home discovered two more copies.

• 2005. Three Assyrian marble reliefs from Nineveh, including one of an eagle-headed genie and another of soldiers and horses. They were dated by the British Museum at around 681BC, supposedly from the Palace of Sennacherib, and thought to be worth around £250,000 to £300,000. But alerted by Bonhams, their discrepancies were revealed, and the forgery exposed.