Chicago Art Institute says ‘Faun’ is a fake

A half-man, half-goat ceramic figure supposedly sculpted by 19th century French artist Paul Gauguin has delighted aficionados visiting the Art Institute of Chicago for a decade.

But now the museum says “The Faun” is a fake.

“No one could think of any other instance in which anything like this happened here,” the director of public affairs at the institute, Erin Hogan, told the Chicago Tribune.

The museum said the sculpture is among scores of forgeries produced by the Greenhalgh family, which has been under investigation by authorities in Great Britain for nearly two years.

A private dealer bought the piece at Sotheby’s in 1994 and the Art Institute purchased it from the dealer three years later.

The creations by the Greenhalghs also included Assyrian stone reliefs, and several copies of paintings by American artist Henry Moran.