Arrests over £30m antiques theft

Recovered goods will be displayed at roadshows

Two men and a woman have been arrested as part of an investigation into the theft of millions of pounds worth of art and antiques.

Much of the property was stolen from country houses and galleries across the UK during night time burglaries, often leaving homeowners traumatised.

Police recovered £500,000 in goods from London, Essex and Kent on Wednesday.

Two men, aged 46 and 73, and a woman, aged 50, are being questioned on suspicion of money laundering offences.

For two years police have been trying to trace a south London gang believed to have stolen £30m worth of property.

Now Scotland Yard's art and antiques unit believe an organised criminal network was operating from Flogg It auction house, Catford, south-east London.

Recovered property £1m silverware 18th century peat and plate buckets £50,000 Thomas Sidney Cooper painting Five John Sutton paintings

Among the recovered property were valuable miniature paintings stolen from Madresfield Court, in Worcestershire, where thieves rowed across a moat during a night-time raid.

There was also silverware valued at £1m taken in a raid on a dealers in Petworth, Surrey, and a £50,000 Thomas Sidney Cooper painting snatched from a house in Windsor, Berkshire.

Det Ch Insp David Thompson said: "The operation identified a professional criminal network which was responsible for the wholesale theft and sale of valuable items from country houses."

The goods will be displayed during a series of roadshows over the next two months in order to return them to their rightful owners.