A WOMAN sacked by her internationally-renowned artist boss claimed yesterday that his special edition prints were a con.

Angela Davis, 43, made the allegation at an employment tribunal in Newcastle.

North-East artist Mackenzie Thorpe and his wife, Susan, sacked Miss Davis in April last year after she spent 33 weeks off sick and she is claiming unfair dismissal.

Mr Thorpe, who is famous for his paintings of square sheep, produced five sets of special edition prints from his Arthaus Gallery in Richmond, North Yorkshire, during the late 1990s. They were published in limited runs of 400, with each picture individually numbered.

Miss Davis, a former sales assistant at Arthaus, described how she and other staff noticed that duplicate numbers kept turning up on two sets of prints, titled Owen and Chloe and In the Sunflowers.

In her written statement to the tribunal, she said: "Just before the Thorpes' move to Darlington, we were almost out of Owen and Chloe, and Susan (Thorpe) said it would be a shame when they ran out of them as they sold very well. Then, in the move, they found another packet of them in the garage."

In cross-examination, Nigel Brockley, for the Thorpes, accused Miss Davis of putting a "malign complexion" on her evidence to the panel.

He said the same numbers could be explained by the Thorpes using "overs". A common practice in the art world, this is when a painting with a defect is cut up and replaced with a spare print, to ensure the edition run is still complete.

The tribunal continues today.