And detectives confirmed today that they believe `The Faun' - a ceramic sculpture presented to the American museum as a work by French master Paul Gauguin - was the handiwork of the Bolton-based Greenhalgh family of fraudsters.
The museum paid $125,000 (£61,500) for the work in 1997.
Shaun Greenhalgh, 47, a talented forger who created fake masterpieces then sold them to museums and art collectors with the help of his parents George, 84, and Olive, 83, was last month jailed for four years and eight months after Bolton Museum and Art Gallery paid £440,000 for the Armana Princess.
The sculpture was said to depict the daughter of Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti.
It was, however, `knocked together' in the space of three weeks by Shaun Greenhalgh working from a garden shed at the family's council house home in Bromley Cross, Bolton crown court was told.
The Art Institute of Chicago bought The Faun from a private dealer in London, who had bought it at a Sotheby's auction in 1994.
Important
It was hailed by experts as one of the museum's most important acquisitions of the last 20 years but has now been removed from public display.
Erin Hogan, director of public affairs at the institute, said: "Everyone who bought and sold the work did so in good faith.
"No one could think of any other instance in which anything like this happened here.
"We don't have experience in this area. We're talking to both Sotheby's and the private dealer about how to proceed."
It is reported that Shaun Greenhalgh has confessed to authorities that The Faun was his handiwork.
Scotland Yard's arts and antiques Unit said today that they believed The Faun was the work of the family. A spokesman said: "We have recently discovered the whereabouts of this piece, The Faun by Paul Gauguin. Officers immediately contacted the owners and advised them appropriately as to the actions they may wish to take.
"As the case against the Greenhalgh family is completed no further action is planned."
Shaun Greenhalgh was exposed as having replicated ancient relics and the works of master artists in a major `cottage industry' operating at the house.
His father was the front of the operation and approached world-renowned art galleries and auction houses to buy the works. The court heard they had raked in £850,000 from the 17-year "ambitious conspiracy" but in total they had attempted to sell £2 million worth of art works.
When police raided their house they uncovered one of the most audacious attempts to swindle the art world ever seen. Watercolours tumbled out of wardrobes, half-finished statues sat in the kitchen and a furnace for melting precious metals was on top of the fridge.
Raw materials including Roman glass and silver coins were stuffed in cupboards alongside a library of books on subjects from Egyptian art to modern watercolours.
All three admitted conspiring to defraud art institutions between June 1989 and March, 2006. Olive Greenhalgh was given a 12-month suspended sentence. George Greenhalgh is yet to be sentenced.
After the case, police said that the full impact of the family's prodigious output had yet to be felt because as many as 100 forged pieces could still be in circulation. Detectives said they had evidence of a forged Gauguin but did not know where it was.
Southeby's said that it was working with the purchaser to resolve the matter.
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What wasted talent - what have they done with the cash, obviously still living in a council house so not spent on property.
When Shaun Greenhalgh gets out of prison Sothebys should give him a job. So much for their experts, you must admit you have to laugh the way they conned 'the experts'.
I can't wait to see this story made into a film.
Coming soon, new revelation, Lowry's rubbish was actually painted by Stevie Wonder!
Well Shaun Greenhalgh you now have more than your Andy Warhol, fifteen minutes of fame with a custodial sentence to boot, so with a back story like that you are all set for success. You need to understand art today is about original ideas, a new perception and as the rappers say, keeping it real, which obviously you didn't. So Shaun paint and sculpt your world, your real world or your fantasy world, it's the same thing, you clearly have the skills. As for frustration, that's the key, it's what we all want to see, the raw insides coming out onto the canvas. Just do it, do enough of it and with your pedigree you're guaranteed to get a show, sell the lot and be more famous and respected than you can ever imagine. Talent has a lot to do with it but it's really fame that sets the great masters apart from their lesser contemporaries and now you have fame you're more than half way there and fame is the really difficult bit. Now probably any old blob will do with your name on it, but I'm sure you have something you actually need to say. The world wants you to succeed, everyone is always in awe of a great craftsman, because that is easy to understand, now you have to add originality to become a respected artist. I expect to see your stuff at the Frieze a year after you come out, please don't disappoint.
Colin O'Donoghue
He created art, they bought it,they to looked like the back slapping fools they are, they punished him because they could. The establishment put the artist in prison and they are still fools.
He created art, they bought it, they looked and felt foolish, they had him punished, an artist goes to prison, not for the first time and others make money from him.