Advertisement

Elderly couple conned art world

LONDON, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- A British couple in their 80s have pleaded guilty to selling an Egyptian statue for more than $800,000, it was reported Saturday.

Olive and George Greenhalgh admitted knowing the Amarna Princess statuette was a fake when they sold it to the Bolton metropolitan borough council in 2003, The Telegraph reported.

Advertisement

Greenhalgh, 83, and her husband, 84, pleaded guilty Friday after their son, Shaun, 47, admitted his guilt to the same offense at an earlier hearing. The three are to be sentenced next month in Bolton Crown Court, the British newspaper reported.

The Greenhalghs originally claimed their 20-inch Amarna Princess was worth up to $2 million because it dated from 1350 B.C. and represented one of the daughters of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, the mother of Tutankhamun.

After the sale, the figure was displayed at the Bolton Museum and featured in an exhibition opened by Queen Elizabeth at the Hayward Gallery in London.

The Greenhalghs were arrested earlier this year at their home in Bromley Cross, near Bolton, after experts determined that figure and others they had sold were fake.

Latest Headlines