A Find To Remember

(Posted on behalf of Colin)


Richard Stenner, an enthusiastic metal detectorist and Honorary member of Newton Abbot Metal Detecting Club, recently made one of his annual visits to his home town in Cambridge, staying on his friend’s farm which he looks after while the family goes on holiday, never forgetting of course his trusty metal detector as he has found many roman coins and artefacts there. But one day whilst detecting he came across a find he will never forget. The fields at this farm are not separated by the usual hedges, but by ditches. While crossing from one field to another he had to cross one of these ditches and had the surprise of his detecting life to come across this statue buried under the undergrowth. The statue was approximately 4 feet high made of bronze. It was heavy but he managed to get it back to his car.
Richard, being an ex-policeman did his duty and reported the find to the local police, and after making enquiries the police informed him that there were no reports of this statue being stolen and unless it was claimed, after a period of time the statue would belong to him. Richard returned back to Torquay with the statue.
After lots of hours searching the Internet, and phone calls to different museums, the statue was eventually located in the inventory of a museum in Cambridge. On contacting the museum they confirmed the statue was missing, presumably stolen, it was worth thousands of pounds and the museum were over the moon that it had been found.
Richard offered to return the statue on his next visit to his friends farm in Cambridge upon which the museum showed their appreciation by giving him a finders-fee, his petrol expenses, and free entry to the museum anytime he wished.
A good result all round, and setting a good example for all metal detectorists to follow.