A “very valuable” bronze sculpture worth £60,000 has been stolen from the garden of a world-renowned artist who said she was “upset” at the lack of progress in the investigation. Anne Curry told the PA news agency she returned home from a funeral service on the evening of December 6 2024 to find that one of her artworks called La Promesse – an imposing bronze sculpture of an iris flower weighing about 350kg – had vanished from her garden in Arkesden, Saffron Walden, Essex.
The 82-year-old artist, who is famous for her garden sculptures and portraits, including a bronze bust of Sir John Major that she made for the House of Commons, said she immediately reported the theft to the police. But nearly a month after the crime, the artist said she was “upset” at the lack of progress in her case as no arrests have been made.
She said of the theft: “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.”. She added about the perpetrator or perpetrators: “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.”.
