Shaun Greenhalgh - The "Amarna Princess"

The "Amarna Princess"

In 1999 the Greenhalghs began their most ambitious project yet. They bought an 1892 catalogue which listed the contents of an auction in Silverton Park, Devon, the home of the 4th Earl of Egremont. Among the items listed were "eight Egyptian figures." Using the leeway this vague description allowed, Greenhalgh manufactured what became called the "Amarna Princess," a 20-inch statue, apparently made of a "stunning translucent alabaster, it later emerged within a Panorama documentary that he had bought the tools to produce this 'masterpiece' from B&Q." Done in the Egyptian "Amarna period" style of 1350 BC, the statue represents one of the daughters of the Pharaoh Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti, mother of Prince Tutankhamun. At the time, as Greenhalgh had researched, only two other similar statuettes were known to exist in the world. He "knocked up" his copy in his shed in three weeks out of calcite, "using basic DIY tools and making it look old by coating it in a mixture of tea and clay".

George then approached Bolton Museum in 2002, claiming the Amarna was from his grandfather’s "forgotten collection", bought at the Silverton Park auction. He pretended to be ignorant about its true worth or value, but was careful to provide the letters Shaun had also faked, showing how the artefact had been in the family for "a hundred years".

In 2003, after consulting experts at the British Museum and Christie's, the Bolton Museum bought the Amarna Princess for £439,767. It remained on display until February 2006.