A fraudster who tried to sell bogus ancient statues to Sotheby's was foiled when his fake accompanying paperwork was found to be w...

A fraudster who tried to sell bogus ancient statues to Sotheby's was foiled when his fake accompanying paperwork was found to be written with printing methods that were 25 years too modern, a court heard. Andrew Crowley, 46, of Longwell Green, Bristol, asked the auction house to value three Cycladic figures and an Anatolian stargazer statuette he had inherited from his grandfather. He had presented fake invoices that purported to be written in 1976 - but forensics found they were made using printing methods invented in 2001. Crowley, who admitted dishonestly making a false representation intending to make gain, was handed a two-year suspended prison sentence at Southwark Crown Court. Crowley had tried to sell the statues to Sotheby's auction house in London between November 2022 and July 2023. https://lnkd.in/gAQScyvy