Antiques dealer spots stolen Napoleon III crypt plaques on 30-year-old episode of Lovejoy
Two of three “priceless” altar plaques stolen from the tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte III at a Hampshire abbey have been recovered. An antique dealer recognized identification marks belonging to a 30-year-old boy love pleasure The episode leads to their discovery.
The 19th-century wooden prayer frames were taken during a burglary at St Michael’s Priory in Farnborough in February 2014.
Hampshire Constabulary returned two of the plaques following an appeal from Derbyshire-based dealer Paul Gostelow.
A spokesman for the agency said Mr Gostelow realized they were from the Napoleonic period after spotting a motif in an episode of the BBC comedy-drama Lovejoy depicting Ian McShane as an antiques dealer.
The spokesman said: “In February 2014 the Tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte III, the last Emperor of France, was burgled and three unique, historically significant and priceless altar plaques were taken.
“They were thought to have been lost until 12 years later on February 10 this year when Paul Gostelow, an antiques dealer in Derbyshire, made a chance call who told the force that two of the stolen plaques had been found.
“Paul knew they were from the Napoleonic era because of the ball and crown in the corner of the frame, which he recognized from an episode of the 90s Brit TV series Lovejoy.
“The call to the police was intercepted by our former crime expert, Pc Mark Webb of Country Watch Rural Crime Taskforce.
“Some investigations with the International Stolen Arts Register have confirmed that these are indeed these items.
“Officers from the task force traveled to Derbyshire last week to recover the items and Pc Webb managed to return them to St Michael’s Priory in Farnborough for restoration and their return to their place in the tomb.”
The spokesman added: “Ongoing work has identified a number of investigations and efforts will be made to locate the third missing plaque.”
Napoleon Bonaparte’s nephew III. After losing the Franco-Prussian war and being captured by the Germans, Napoleon fled into exile in England in 1871.
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 Priory as a monastery, along with the Imperial Mausoleum, for the remains of her husband and son Napoleon, who died in the Zulu War in 1879.
When his body was recovered from the battlefield, a number of handwritten prayers were found in his wallet, which Eugenie had engraved and assembled to form prayer frames stolen during the burglary.
In 2023, French senate vice president Roger Karoutchi said that he was the only monarch buried abroad, saying that he was the only ruler buried abroad. He called for Napoleon’s remains to be returned to France.
