Thieves made off with an enormous bronze sculpture worth £60,000 stolen from the grounds of a world-renowned artist. ''La Promesse' was stolen from artist Anne Curry's home in Arkesden, Saffron Walden, Essex overnight between December 5 and December 6. The sculpture, which has a manufacturing value of around £20,000, had a sale price of £60,000 and is signed by Curry. Police have said no arrests have been made but officers are pursuing several lines of enquiry.
Curry's work has been featured in global exhibitions and she has also sculpted busts of the UK's leading statesmen, including former prime minister John Major and former member of parliament Michael Heseltine. Anne Curry has since spoken out on the theft, which has left her "upset". Curry, 82, told the PA News agency: "The person who stole that one had been in the garden and systematically knocked on the sculptures to see which one was in bronze. It’s just unbelievable, it’s extraordinary.
"I had been away for the day because of a funeral in Warwick and I returned in the evening to see the sculpture had gone. It had obviously happened in the night. They obviously had visited the site before. I have 15 to 20 sculptures in this garden, and almost all of them are resins because it’s safer for theft, and it’s safer to transport.
"The person who stole that one had been in the garden and systematically knocked on the sculptures to see which one was in bronze." She added the incident has affected her sense of security, adding: "There’s a feeling of hidden threat. When you live in a village you love, you don’t think of that, you don’t think of the environment as threatening, and it’s very upsetting to discover that there is a threat.".
