Cat burglars net Bond St antiques

Cat burglars crept across rooftops to steal £250,000 worth of unique Far Eastern artefacts from a London antiques shop, Scotland Yard said today.

They escaped with "exceptionally rare" works, some up to 1,500 years old, but broke the foot of an 800-year-old standing Buddha, valued at £110,000, as they escaped with it.

The gang, rather like Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones playing cat burglars in the film Entrapment, scrambled in after smashing a window and grabbed the nearest pieces to hand, leaving behind more valuable items. They then disappeared up a fire escape and across the roofs.

The owner of the Bond Street shop, who wants to remain anonymous, offered a £22,000 reward for information leading to the safe recovery of the items.

Pc Matt Benjafield, who specialises in antiques thefts, said: "There is an incredibly small market for these goods and unless they were stolen to order the thieves will have difficulty selling them on. The likelihood is the burglars don't realise the value of the pieces and have probably sold them for a pittance. I think they were opportunists who struck lucky.

"They must have been struggling to carry the standing Buddha because it's nearly 6ft tall and they'll have knocked off some of the value when they broke it in their rush to get away."

Police are carrying out a forensic examination following the theft at 6.30pm last Sunday.

Mark Dalrymple, a loss adjuster handling the case, said the works were made by skilled artisans but records were not kept as to who the artists were.

He added: "These are superb works, almost museum pieces. They are wonderful and the sculptures have the most intricate detail and carving.

"If you think that some of these were made when people in Britain were walking round in bearskins, not far off being animals, it shows how sophisticated the Far East and Asian communities were."

The burglars also stole a 17th century Tibetan painted skull cap valued at £11,000; a 14cm £2,000 seated monk made from sandalwood with paint and gilt; a portrait of a Tibetan Lama valued at £3,000; a 12th century gilt bronze head of Buddha worth £15,000 and a £115,000, 6th century sandstone Pingala in Sassanian dress, made in the northern Punjab.

Pingala was one of the sun god's attendants who represented the intellectual means of achieving one's goals. Bearded and wise looking, he is dressed as a dignitary and holds a pen and paper to represent-diplomacy. Police are also appealing for information after an art dealer in New Bond Street had a £65,000 George Richmond painting stolen. Two thieves were captured on CCTV camera ripping the work, entitled Isaac Going Forth To Meditate At Eventide from the wall and walking out of the Fine Art Gallery with the painting in a designer carrier bag.

Anyone with information on these thefts is asked to call police on 020 7321 8797 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.