Stolen antiques seized in auction raid

Antique treasures worth more than £150,000 have been recovered by police after a raid on a London auction room.

The goods were recovered after Scotland Yard detectives swooped on a country house burglary gang.

Among them were items stolen during a £2 million raid of Madresfield Court, Worcestershire - the country home that inspired Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited.

The 700 items, taken in 2003, included portrait miniatures; silver; Sevres and Meissen porcelain; and a jade Indian hookah pipe worth about ?120,000. The police investigation has led to the recovery of only about 60 items.

The others are believed to have been sold.

Detectives believe the premises of Flogg It auction house in Catford were a clearing house for millions of pounds worth of arts and antiques stolen in burglaries across the South of England. Two men and a woman are being questioned today in connection with money laundering and conspiracy to money launder.