Thieves break into Lord Archer’s 17th century property and steal garden bronze sculptures worth £30,000

Celebrated poet Rupert Brooke, in his ode The Old Vicarage, Grantchester, said of the historic Cambridgeshire home: ‘But Grantchester! ah, Grantchester! There’s peace and holy quiet there.’

Jeffrey Archer, who has owned The Old Vicarage since 1979, has had that peace disturbed by a gang of raiders.

The Daily Mail can disclose that burglars broke in to the 17th century property this week while the best-selling author and his wife, Dame Mary Archer, were asleep at night.

The gang stole four precious bronze sculptures, worth tens of thousands of pounds, from the back garden.

‘The saddest thing is that, according to the police, the thieves will almost certainly melt down the sculptures and the bronze will be worth just a few hundred pounds,’ Lord Archer told the Daily Mail last night.

‘The sculptures are a real loss to the nation. One of them was Oceanides, by Maurice Lambert. 

‘Sir Nicholas Serota, when he was director of the Tate Gallery, told me that it was a very important piece, so I had left it in my will to the Tate, so that it could be enjoyed by thousands of people after my death. Sadly, that won’t happen now.’

Lord Archer, whose novels include Honour Among Thieves, does not expect to see his cherished sculptures again. 

The Old Vicarage in Grantchester the home of Jeffrey Archer and his wife, Dame Mary Archer since 1979

The gang stole four precious bronze sculptures, worth tens of thousands of pounds, from the back garden

‘The police have been very good, and came immediately, but the gang clearly knew what they were doing. They had the professional equipment to remove the sculptures.’

It is not the first time that the Archers’ garden has been targeted by criminals. 

In 2007, a 6ft life-size bronze sculpture of a naked shepherd herding his sheep was stolen. It was thought to be worth tens of thousands of pounds.

Lord Archer, 84, a former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, has previously spoken of his love of The Old Vicarage, where his two sons were born.

‘It’s quite beautiful,’ he has said of the Grade II-listed property near Cambridge. 

It was visited by his late friend Margaret Thatcher every summer for 11 years after the former prime minister left 10 Downing Street. A top-floor room is now called the ‘Margaret Thatcher bedroom’.

In 2006, the Archers commissioned a bronze sculpture of Rupert Brooke by Paul Day, which was unveiled by Baroness Thatcher. It stands at the front of the house.