{"id":222097,"date":"2025-06-28T19:29:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T19:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/222097\/"},"modified":"2025-06-28T19:29:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T19:29:13","slug":"two-arrested-after-cherished-statues-stolen-from-country-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/222097\/","title":{"rendered":"Two arrested after cherished statues stolen from country house"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The statues were over a century old and are still missing<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/0_LC_210625statues_04.jpg\" loading=\"eager\"  \/>Iford Manor She-wolf (Credit : Wiltshire Police)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Two men have been arrested after four statues were stolen from the garden of a country house <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.somersetlive.co.uk\/news\/uk-world-news\/owner-devastated-century-old-bronze-10285675\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">last Friday (June 20).<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Thieves broke into Grade II star-listed Ilford Manor, near Bradford-on-Avon, in an overnight raid where four replica classic statues, some of which had stood in the grounds for more than a century, were taken.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Police said a vehicle with a police marker was stopped by Avon and Somerset officers in the Bristol area on Thursday evening when a 31-year-old and a 39-year-old, were arrested.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">They live outside of Wiltshire and have been released under conditional bail not to enter the county.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/0_LC_210625statues_00.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"  \/>Iford Manor She Wolf<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">The Manor, owned by William and Marianne Cartwright-Hignett, has gardens open to the public and said their loss of their copy of the Capitoline She-Wolf was a particularly sad loss.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">The bronze statue, which has \u201coverlooked the valley for over 120 years\u201d, depicts a scene from the legend of the founding of Rome, and was at the \u201cheart\u201d of the estate\u2019s tranquil setting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">A pair of symmetrical fawns, copies of the Villa Dei Papyri fawns, and a bust of Antinous were also stolen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">At the time of the theft, the estate which has been used as a filming location for the Secret Garden and <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bristolpost.co.uk\/all-about\/itv\" target=\"\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">ITV<\/a> \u2019s Sanditon \u2013 was hosting a five-day jazz festival.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">In a statement posted on their website, the estate said it was \u201cstill reeling from the theft\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">\u201cThis is a cultural loss for all of us,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/0_LC_210625statues_01.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"  \/>Iford Manor, one of 2 deer (Credit : Wiltshire Police)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">\u201cThe gardens here have welcomed visitors since 1910 and now have 20,000 visitors from April to September who enjoy the tranquil and beautiful setting, of which the She-Wolf was the heart and in a setting made to showcase the statue.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">\u201cWe would love to see the statues returned to their rightful place for everyone to continue to enjoy for centuries to come.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Detective Inspector Penny Andrews said: \u201cWe are continuing to appeal for anyone who knows anything about the stolen items or who saw anything suspicious leading up to the incident to come forward with information.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">\u201cNo matter how insignificant you may think the information may be, it could be vital to assist our ongoing investigation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">\u201cWe would also urge any antique dealers or auction houses to look out for the items.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The statues were over a century old and are still missingIford Manor She-wolf (Credit : Wiltshire Police) Two&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,748,393,4884,208,16,15,81599],"class_list":{"0":"post-222097","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-itv","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-wiltshire-police"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114762649866957877","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}