Stolen statue found in Chicago (From Gazette & Herald)

Stolen statue found in Chicago

A HALF-TON statue stolen from Sledmere House more than a year ago, has been recovered - in Chicago.

"I was absolutely overjoyed when I heard the statue had been recovered," said Sir Tatton Sykes, whose family has lived at Sledmere for 250 years. "It is one of the family's favourite pieces of garden statuary and everyone was devastated when it was stolen. We are delighted and greatly relieved to have it back home."

The life-sized Goddess of the Harvest (pictured) was stolen in December 2002, the thieves removing it from its plinth one night in the grounds of the estate, where it had stood for more than 100 years.

In an effort to recover the statue, Sir Tatton contacted Trace, a specialist magazine containing illustrations and descriptions of stolen objects that circulates among auction houses, art dealers, museums and police forces in 182 countries.

Trace carried a photograph of the statue on its front page in April last year and, within days, investigators at the magazine received an anonymous call saying the photograph matched a statue seen a month earlier on the premises of a shipping agent in Essex.

James Hill, of Trace, made inquiries of all known shipping agents in the area and identified the company in question.

They co-operated fully, stating that they had shipped an identical statue to a dealer in Chicago and acting on instructions from Sir Tatton, an investigator from Art Recovery Ltd flew to the US - a new firm, staffed by former detectives from New Scotland Yard and Thames Valley Police, created after Trace and the Mintz Group, an investigations firm based in New York, joined forces to form a company that would not just identify stolen art, but also recover it.

There, with the full co-operation of the Chicago dealer, the statue was identified as the one from Sledmere House and negotiations were completed for its handover and return to the UK. It was restored to its plinth on Monday.

Updated: 11:29 Wednesday, June 30, 2004