Bronze statue, Man Riding a Camel

Statue Recovered and then Purchased by Thief After Serving Time in Prison

Aug 18, 2010

Hundreds of items were stolen from a UK based theft victim in 1996.  The police raided the home of a suspect and confiscated everything they could find. The suspect was convicted and served 12 months in prison but many of the objects in police possession could not be matched with their original owners.

This bronze camel sculpture was identified by the victim who decided to let his insurance company retain title and negotiate for possession of any recovered objects. Chris Marinello, acting on behalf of the insurer, recovered the bronze from the police in 2010. The arrested thief insisted that he purchased this statue from an auction house in London called “Flog It”, not the most reliable source.  Now a free man, he decided that he could not live without this ‘man on a camel’ and offered to buy the statue from the insurer making an sizeable offer they oddly accepted.