The subject of the Arts Scholars’ Company Annual Mithras Lecture was The Art Crime Investigator, given by DS Claire Hutcheon (right) of the Metropolitan Police Art & Antiques Unit. Held at the Goldsmiths’ Hall, some 200 people, including 40 representatives of other Livery Companies, attended. It was a lively lecture drawing on Claire’s casebook of art thieves and forgers. She operates a small unit at the Met but has excellent access to art world expertise which means she can concentrate on catching the villains. Some ‘notorious’ cases were explained: Winston Churchill’s signature on a book with a bar code, which led to the detection of other book frauds. But the most prolific in recent years was probably the Greenhalgh family. Worth a book of their own. One example was that of the 3,000 year old Egyptian alabaster Amarna Princess, sold to Bolton Museum in 2003 for £400,000 and later discovered to be a fake. Provenance is key, and the extent to which fraudsters will go to provide it is amazing – including a fake sepia photograph with the fake pictures on the wall to demonstrate their age. Many thanks to Claire and the Arts Scholars’ Company.
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