THEY must have thought they had a bargain: a £1 million artefact carved 3,300 years ago by Ancient Egyptian artisans for just £440,000.

Inspected by the British Museum and sold through Christie’s, the Amarna Princess was one of only three known examples of the period. The reason for the knock-down price? Its mysterious owners wanted the piece to remain in Bolton.

But a police inquiry now suggests that the alabaster sculpture has less to do with Ancient Egypt and more to do with Bolton circa 2003.

Scotland Yard’s Arts and Antiques squad began an investigation two weeks ago when the British Museum reported the arrival of a suspicious Syrian relief. Curators who had been asked to inspect the relief for a private client observed that it had come from a similar source to the Amarna Princess. Police seized the relief and two other objects in London and impounded the Princess.

They also raided a house in Bromley Cross, Bolton, where they arrested a 46-year-old man on suspicion of forgery. Acting Chief Inspector Martin Freschini told The Times that the Bolton house resembled a workshop. “There were items of marble and ancillary equipment for making statues and the like,” he said. “We seized a number of items and a quantity of cash.”

The arrested man’s father, 83, was questioned the next day. The pair are bailed to appear at a Lancashire police station on May 10 and 11.

The Amarna Princess, described as being a representation of the half-sister of King Tutankhamun, had impressed the British Museum and Bolton Museum because of its detailed provenance. The anonymous vendor claimed that his great-grandfather had bought it at the auction of the property of the Earl of Egremont in 1892.

A copy of the Silverton Park auction catalogue obtained by The Times contains very few details of any matching statues. It promised “costly, rare and valuable antique furniture”, and had three lots that could have been the Amarna Princess. The sale included a draped figure of a female, five marble statuettes and eight Egyptian figures. None mentions that the statue had no head or arms.

This seems to have been convincing enough for Bolton Council, which obtained a grant of £360,000 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund as well as £75,000 from the National Art Collections Fund and £2,500 from the Friends of Bolton Museum and Art Gallery.

The Hayward Gallery, on the South Bank, displayed the statue as part of its Saved! celebration of 100 years of saving art for the nation.

The Amarna Princess is 52cm high and was estimated to be from the 2nd century BC. Experts said that the woman was the daughter of King Akhenaten and Nefertiti, his most senior wife. Akhenaten was succeeded by Tutankhamun, his son by another wife.