A fraudster who conned the art world has told museum staff that he regrets duping experts with a fake statue.
Bolton Museum paid £440,000 for the Amarna Princess figure, believing it had acquired a 3,300-year-old artefact.
But the statue of the granddaughter of King Tutankhamun was actually created by prolific forger Shaun Greenhalgh, 59, in his garden shed.
Greenhalgh said he felt “bad,” when he visited the museum during the filming of a documentary.
The documentary, “Made in Bolton,” is being produced by Sunday Times arts editor Waldemar Januszczak.
Over a 17 years, Greenhalgh and his elderly parents sold hundreds of fakes they passed off as the genuine article, earning at least £850,000.
The scam unravelled when mistakes in Egyptian script were spotted on stonework by experts at the British Museum and Greenhalgh, was jailed in 2007 at Bolton Crown Court.
Bolton Museum first put the fake statue on display in 2011 and it has since become a permanent exhibit.
The council’s deputy leader Martyn Cox said: “We are glad that Mr Greenhalgh is now putting his extraordinary talents to good honest use.”
