Antiques dealer spots stolen Napoleon III plaques on 30-year-old episode of Lovejoy
Two of three “priceless” altar plaques, stolen from the crypt of Napoleon Bonaparte III in a Hampshire monastery, have been recovered. An antiques dealer recognised identifying marks from a 30-year-old Lovejoy episode, leading to their discovery.
The 19th-century wooden prayer frames were taken during a February 2014 burglary at St Michael’s Abbey in Farnborough.
Hampshire Constabulary has since returned two of the plaques, following a call from Derbyshire-based dealer Paul Gostelow.
A spokesman for the force said Mr Gostelow had recognised that they dated back to the Napoleonic era after spotting a motif which he had seen on an episode of the BBC comedy-drama Lovejoy, which featured Ian McShane as an antiques dealer.
The spokesman said: “In February 2014 the Crypt of Napoleon Bonaparte III, last Emperor of France, was burgled and three unique, historically important and priceless altar plaques were taken.
“After 12 years they were thought to have been lost, until a chance call to the constabulary on February 10 this year from an antiques dealer in Derbyshire – Paul Gostelow – who said he had two of the stolen plaques.
“Remarkably, Paul knew them to be from the Napoleonic era due to the ball and crown in the corner of the frame – which he recognised from an episode of the 90s Brit TV series Lovejoy.
“The call to police was intercepted by Pc Mark Webb from the Country Watch Rural Crime Task Force, who is our heritage crime specialist.
“Some investigation with the International Stolen Arts Register confirmed that they were indeed the items.
“Officers from the task force last week travelled to Derbyshire to recover the items, and Pc Webb was able to return them to St Michael’s Abbey in Farnborough for restoration and return to their place in the crypt.”
The spokesman added: “Ongoing work has identified a number of lines of inquiry and efforts will be made to locate the third plaque, which remains missing.”
Napoleon III, the nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, fled in exile to England in 1871 after losing the Franco-Prussian war and being captured by the Germans.
He died in 1873 after surgery for bladder stones.
In 1880, his widow, Empress Eugenie, bought a house in Farnborough and built St Michael’s Abbey as a monastery with the Imperial Mausoleum for the remains of her husband and her son, Napoleon, who died in the Zulu War in 1879.
When his body was retrieved from the battlefield, a number of handwritten prayers were found in his wallet which Eugenie had engraved and mounted to form the prayer frames which were stolen in the burglary.
In 2023, Roger Karoutchi, deputy speaker of the French senate, called for the remains of Napoleon III to be returned to France, saying that he was the only sovereign who was buried abroad.