Artist left ‘upset and unsettled’ after £60k statue theft

The artist, who created a bust of Sir John Major for the House of Commons, said: “I had been away for the day because of a funeral in Warwick returned in the evening to see the sculpture had gone.”

She believed the thieves had visited her home before and checked a large number of statues to see which ones were bronze.

“What people do not realise is that a bronze sculpture is not stolen for its beauty, it is stolen for the bronze, which is taken immediately to a scrap merchant, cut up, and sold up, because the bronze is very valuable.

“It’s left me unsettled and upset.”

She said she was visited by police on 27 December, three weeks after it was reported stolen.

“When something like this is happening, the police need to be on it quickly.”

An Essex Police spokesman said officers had made four efforts to contact Dr Curry to arrange a visit throughout December, which had gone unanswered.

The artist, married to the retired Conservative MP, David Curry, said she was “very attached” to the work of art, which cost £20,000 to cast and had a market value of £60,000.