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Sculptor delighted as stolen animal heads found

George Thorpe
BBC News, Devon
Zen Wood Design A wooden sculpture of a female lion head on a plinth in a field.Zen Wood Design
Four of the nine wooden animal head sculptures have been found, their sculptor said

A sculptor says it is "unbelievable" several pieces of artwork which were stolen from a farm have been found in "fairly good nick".

Brendan Rawlings created a set of wooden animal head sculptures for a walking trail on Darts Farm in Topsham, Devon, which were then removed from their plinths in July 2024.

A search for the artworks - which had been displayed at Glastonbury Festival before being taken to the farm - had been ongoing.

Mr Rawlings said he was delighted when he received a phone call on Tuesday saying four of the nine heads had been found in a bin in Exeter.

Zen Wood Design Six wooden plinths which had wooden animal sculpture heads on them before they were stolen. The heads were cut from the plinths. The plinths are stuck to black tiles.Zen Wood Design
The nine wooden heads were removed from plinths they had been put on

Mr Rawlings told BBC Radio Devon a man who ran a residential housing complex had found them in black plastic bags stuffed into a waste disposal unit.

"I then got a call from a mate of mine who is a police officer who said 'we've got four of your sculptures here', so they have found four of them," Mr Rawlings said.

"Where they've been for a year, I don't know, but we've got four out of nine which is a start."

He added the heads appeared to be in "fairly good nick" and was looking forward to their return.

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