The Forged Relics of Deception In the rarefied world of high stakes art sales, authenticity is paramount and provenance can make all the difference between a tidy profit and a crushing loss.
A recent case has exposed the dark underbelly of deceit: Andrew Crowley, a 46 year old man from Gloucestershire, was caught attempting to peddle three Cycladic figures and an Anatolian stargazer statuette as genuine antiques to Sotheby's auction house.
Crowley presented fake invoices for the statues, complete with supposed antiquarian paper, a vintage logo, and even a nine pence stamp – all designed to give the impression that these artifacts had been on the market since 1976.