When art collector Frank Faryab came across six rare Chinese figurines priced at just £8,000 - a bargain for antiquities from the Far East - he must have pinched himself.
Indeed the statuettes are now understood to be worth more than £900,000.
Not surprisingly, therefore, the collector says he was quick to snap up the items after seeing them for sale in a Mayfair gallery.
But Mr Faryab, 69, whose previous claim to fame was his discovery of a previously unknown painting by JMW Turner, is now embroiled in a bitter £1 million legal battle over the ownership of the figures.
Mati Sinai, an antique dealer who runs the Mayfair Gallery, says Mr Fayab’s claim to be the rightful owner is “absurd”.
Furthermore...