Fraudster trying to sell fake ancient statues to Sotheby’s foiled over bogus invoices

A man has been sentenced after trying to get Sotheby’s to value alleged ancient statues using forged provenance paperwork that was later exposed in court.

Court reporting said Andrew Crowley presented invoices and other papers to support the sale of three Cycladic figures and an Anatolian stargazer statuette, but the documents were identified as fake because the printing methods were modern.

The case was heard at Southwark Crown Court and publicly reported on May 22 and May 23, 2026. Coverage from The Guardian, Sky News and Index.hr all described the same attempted sale and the forged paperwork at the center of the case.

The reporting says the fraud was uncovered before the objects could be treated as genuine antiquities by the auction house. No further legal proceedings have been confirmed in the available reporting.

The case highlights how forged provenance documents can be used to try to move questionable objects through the high-end art market, where paperwork can be as important as the objects themselves.