How superb was this documentary, apart from too much out-of-focus camera trickery. This family deserve a medal for exposing the self-serving, white, middle-class establishments conceit. Their tacit agreement of what's valuable and what's not was gleefully exposed for the world to see. A pure delight. Next, as a friend of the Greenhalgh's suggested, "Carry On Carving."
Oh, joy.

I was just slightly disturbed by the implication that the son was acting under instruction by his father, rather than because he wanted to. If it was his choice then yes, well done to him, quite an achievement, but I think he might have got a little pleasure from life had his father put the same amount of encouragement into getting his son to interact with the wider world.

Too much was left unexplained. Why didn’t the British Museum chase up with the police their first complaint in about 1990? Why didn’t they ask in 1991, 1992, 1993 whether the culprits had been arrested yet? What official excuse did the police have for failing to arrest them then?
Why wasn’t the British Museum instantly aware of the Greenhalgh name when approached years later about the Egyptian reliefs?
What happened to the money? Was it recovered and returned?
Why are we as viewers left asking so many questions?

What an excellent documentary - well done to Cutting Edge & Blast films.

I agree, if that were the case, but it was also stated that the son did interact with the wider world and his anger at the southern snobbery, perceived or otherwise, that had rebuffed him and his art was a far more powerful motivation for his later work than the father, who simply appeared unable to look a gift son in the mouth.
To get at the kernel here I think we need a collaboration between Ken Loach and Alan Plater 'nicking' notions from Mike Leigh and a real Oscar winner could be born - are you listening Film Four?

In terms of the money, I believe around £400k was recovered, mainly from the Princess, and returned to the funding bodies.
The police, as it said in the documentary, were understaffed in that department and never had time to get to what initially appeared to be a relatively minor case.
As for the British Museum, departments are separate with separate records and so the dots were just never joined.
Basically all concerned have a lot to learn from.

I can understand the gut reaction of some to laugh at this, but for me they are crooks plain and simple. There was no real motive to embarass the artworld, that was just an excuse to try get sympathy.
If they just wanted to puncture some egos they could have done what others have done and simply done a sting, then go public and make it a national joke (handing the money back).
They also perpetrated their biggest con on a public museum, not any wealthy institution. Hardly the act of this frustrated artist, lashing out against a world he felt shunned him.

The son was clearly frustrated at his lack of any real talent (he was very good technically, but not the genius they portrayed. He had no real creativity). He was also quite simple and pretty naive. His father was a greedy fantasist who exploited him.
This was about money.

There are interesting unsolved questions though. They didn't spend a lot, so where did the rest of the money go?
And where did the initial start-up funds come from?
It's hard not to feel there's someone else, someone hidden, involved in all this somewhere.

Being a southerner I am not surprised by some of the attitudes thinking we are all a certain way down south but aside from this pathetic view, and to get back to the real point of issue, I think the Greenhalgh's were genius and particularly their son Sean. I can't believe he's been locked up for this when, artistically, his talents could be put to such brilliant use - not least in working for insurance companies or auction-houses/art galleries spotting fakes!

Refering to the Artful dodgers, one of your forum members,reported that £400,000 had been recovered and paid back to the museums,judging by the family's life style they spent very little on themselves.A great shame they should have lived it up.Genius like this is such a rare commodity. jackness

Sean should immediately be offered a job in a National institution such as the National art or British museum as a conservator/restorer where his talents could do some National good