The Guradian had an astonishing story on the 30th September 2003. Bolton Museum had been given first refusal on a unique (and previously unseen in public) 52cm (20" ) high headless statuette of Queen Nefertiti's daughter, by its owner.(pic)
Queen Nefertiti was the bride and co-ruler of Egypt, in the 14th century BC, with the pharaoh Akhenatan and is probably better known as the mother of Tutankhamun.
It is believed to be 3,300-year-old of the Amarna Period (c.1350-1334 B.C.) and one of Nefertiti's 4 daughters. It has no head, and is carved from translucent Egyptian alabaster (calcite) but is missing arms and lower legs. In private ownership for 111 years in Bolton, Lancashire, it was said to be originally purchased by a cotton magnate.
Bolton Museum was given first refusal on the 52cm high statue by its owner, before it would have been sold at public auction. It was purchased for £440,000, with £360,767 from the Lottery heritage fund, and a £75,000 grant from the National Arts Collection Fund. If sold on the open market it is claimed that it could have reached £1m.
Only two other artefacts of its kind are known to have survived, one in the Louvre and the other at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. This rarity reflects the destruction by later generations to ensure that the notorious family did not live on after death.
The statue was be displayed at the Hayward Gallery on the South Bank in London from October 23 until next January as part of the Saved! exhibition celebrating 100 years of the National Art Collections Fund.
Bolton Museum has a well known Egyptian collection, amassed from subscriptions to British archaeological excavations at Tell el-Amarna in the 1920s and 30s. The sculpture was said to have been brought to Bolton by the owner's great grandfather in 1892, following a sale of the contents of Silverton Park in Devon, the home of the 4th Earl of Egremont.
Ooooops !!
Metropolitan Police's Art and Antiques Unit arrested two Bolton men in the town last week on suspicion of forgery in connection with the statue.
George Greenhalgh, Olive Greenhalgh and Shaun Greenhalgh are each charged with conspiracy to defraud including alleged offences of selling faked and forged works as genuine between 1989 and 2006, and money laundering the faked arts and antiques and the proceeds from the sale of these antiques.
George snr and Shaun face an additional charge of laundering the proceeds of the sale of the Amarna Princess.
George Greenhalgh jnr, aged 53, is charged with money laundering the faked arts and antiques and the proceeds from the sale of these antiques.
All four family members, who live in a modest end-terrace house in The Crescent, Bromley Cross, will appear at Bolton Magistrates' Court on April 26.
A spokesman said detectives removed the statue from public display at the gallery in connection with an "ongoing investigation" and revealed "a small number of other items" were also removed from the British Museum in connection with the inquiry.
There was a link to the said statue on the Bolton Museum web site which has since disappeared and in the news section they have not got round to reporting the activities of the Metropolitan Police's Art and Antiques Unit. The National Art Collections Fund is similiarly coy.
