A well known forger prompted chaos in the antiques world today when he claimed that the 18th century Chinese vase sold at auction for £51.6 million is a fake.
The vendors looked on in amazement as the auction - held in north west London, Pinner or Ruislip or somesuch - price soared up into stratospheric figures. A friend of the vendors informed a Skoob News reporter that the vendors were once offered £27 for the vase by antique dealer Mike Melody on Dickinson's Real Deal.
And forger Denbeigh Riggit told us that dealer Mike Melody's bid was a lot closer to the actual value of the porcelain vase than the auction price. Riggit, of Bury, Greater Manchester told us:
"It's worth nowt really. I can't believe some chump paid £43 mill for it. It's nowt special, honest. I knocked it up in me garden shed a few years back, and them fish on it were modelled on the goldfish we keep on the sideboard in a big bowl. Funny thing is, when I made it, I thought nowt of it. I thought I could perhaps flog it for a score. Just goes to show yer - some people have got more money than sense. It's like that Sunflowers painting I knocked up when I were a nipper. I flogged it for thirty five sovs to a bloke on Bury market - and that did well too. In the end like."
More as we get it.
