Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Pensioner conners

A British couple in their 80s have pleaded guilty to tricking a museum into buying a purported Egyptian artefact which they had actually made in their workshop.

The couple persuaded museum officials in north-west England to pay them more than $800,000.

The Amarna Princess was said to have been made more than 3,000 years ago in tribute to the daughter of an Egyptian pharaoh and Tutankhamun's mother.

George Greenhalgh, 83, his wife Olive, 82, and their son Shaun convinced Bolton Museum it was real.

The statuette was later exposed to be a fake which they had made in their workshop.

The three pleaded guilty to cheating galleries and art dealers over many years.

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