TWO artefacts stolen from churches in Norfolk and Hertfordshire were returned after a solicitor in Sydney, Australia, spotted them while shopping online.
Richard d’Apice, an 80-year-old member of the Heraldry Society, noticed one of the items — a painted wooden panel — in December while browsing the website of Dreweatts auction house.
Mr d’Apice conducted research and found that the panel had been mentioned in an 1812 publication, The Gentleman’s Magazine, and that it was from St Leonard’s, Flamstead, in Hertfordshire.
The panel, dating from the 1600s and worth about £3000, commemorates George Cordell, who served in the households of three monarchs.
“These things are very hard to obtain ecclesiastical permission to be removed from church furnishings; so it was unusual to see it outside the church,” Mr d’Apice told the BBC. “So I wrote to the Rector and churchwardens to alert them [that] it had been put up for sale, and they acted very promptly.
“They were able to identify from their own records that it was stolen from the church in 1996, along with another painting. As it had been reported to the police and the Art Loss Register, they were able to establish it was their property and it had not left the church legally.”
The auction house removed the panel from sale after receiving the relevant documents, and collection was arranged.
“It feels wonderful [to have helped],” he said. “It actually came very quickly after I had identified the cause of the restoration of a funeral hatchment from St Margaret’s Church, in Felbrigg, Norfolk.”
The funeral hatchment — a diamond-shaped panel bearing the coat of arms of Cecilia, widow of William Windham MP, and who died in 1824 — was being offered for sale by Sworders Fine Art Auctioneers in Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex.
After an investigation by Essex Police’s rural engagement team, the funeral hatchment was returned to St Margaret’s in October.
PC Dane Wyatt said that it was recovered from the seller, “who had bought it in good faith around 20 years ago”.
Mr d’Apice was due to visit St Leonard’s this week to unveil the panel as part of the Flamstead Arts Festival. He said: “I’m excited to know the memorial board has been returned to the place it’s been for hundreds of years. Any church that’s got a door open, I have to have a look.”