Shocking footage shows the moment thieves steal an £18,000 Frankie Dettori statue from a gallery but leave behind £1million worth of art – including an Andy Warhol painting.
The quarter-life-size bronze sculpture of the jockey riding the Ascot Gold Cup winner Stradivarius was stolen from the premises of Haynes Fine Art on Pimlico Road, London.
CCTV images posted onto the gallery’s social media page shows the sculpture was taken from the premises by a pair of thugs, who broke into the building on October 3 after throwing a rock through a glass pane in the door.
One of the thieves them can be seen climbing through the small window and going round to take the maquette out of the window, before passing it through the door to their accomplice.
The criminals leave the building without helping themselves to a Bernard Buffet work worth £180,000 but were seen returning to the scene to collect the Dettori statue’s description tag.
CCTV images posted onto the gallery’s social media page shows the sculpture was taken from the premises by a pair of thugs
One of the thieves stole the maquette out of the window, before passing it through the door to their accomplice
The pair broke into the building on October 3 after throwing a rock through a glass pane in the door
The criminals leave the building without helping themselves to a Bernard Buffet work worth £180,000
The pair were seen returning to the scene to collect the Dettori statue’s description tag
This tag gives details of what the bronze piece is, as well as the name of the artist, leading the police and the gallery to believe the piece was stolen to order and not to be sold or melted down.
Gallery owner Tony Haynes told The Telegraph: ‘It’s one of two things; it’s either stolen to order for someone to hide away and enjoy in their house or they melt it down for scrap to fund a habit which was the big thing when we took on the premises 10 years ago.
‘But by going back for the tag it suggests there’s value in what it actually is, Dettori on Stradivarius. It’s a stunning piece.’
The pieces were created by artist Tristram Lewis who jokingly said ‘it’s almost a compliment’ that one of them had been stolen.
He had created a limited edition of five maquettes, with this stolen piece the third in the series.
The only other one to have come up for sale made £32,000 at the Sir Peter O’Sullevan charity lunch auction last December.
Mr Lewis’s original life-size version of the Dettori sculpture was unveiled at Ascot Racecourse last October by Queen Camilla and the jockey.
The Italian had famously rode seven winners in a day on the famous track in 1996 and displayed the statue for the first time on British Champions Day, his last day riding in Britain before moving to America to continue his career.
The quarter-life-size bronze sculpture shows Frankie Dettori (pictured) riding the Ascot Gold Cup winner Stradivarius
Dettori (pictured in October 2024) famously rode seven winners in a day on the famous track in 1996
Stradivarius ridden by Frankie Dettori crosses the line to win his third Gold Cup in June 2020
That afternoon he went on to win the Champion Stakes on King of Steel on his very last ride.
The statue of the horse, which is near the Ascot bandstand, is diplomatically not named as being Stradivarius.
This is because Dettori and the owner had publicly fallen out, leading to the jockey being sacked from riding the little chestnut ahead of the 2022 Gold Cup.
The squabble contributed to Dettori and trainer John Gosden taking a short sabbatical from each other that summer.
Dettori’s career has been revitalised since the move to America and he has entered himself in for the Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar near San Diego at the start of November, where he is sure to be in demand with both US and British trainers.
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