It’s Downton Abbey crossed with Narnia

THE owners of a “magical” country mansion are selling off their eclectic £2million art collection this week.

The Aladdin’s cave of prized artefacts is housed at Aynhoe Park in Oxfordshire, a 28-bedroom home famous for hosting celebrity parties and weddings.

Collected over 25 years, the catalogue includes a giant white plaster statue of Hercules wearing a gold watch around his neck and a 65-million-year-old dinosaur skull.

Described as a cross between Downton Abbey and Narnia, the mansion has been the family home of James and Sophie Perkins since 2006.

It has also become renowned as a playground for celebrities.

Aynhoe Park hosted Jade Jagger’s wedding in 2012 and Noel Gallagher’s 50th birthday party in 2017. It was also the venue for TV chefs John Torode and Lisa Faulkner’s wedding two years ago.

Former rave mastermind James, 50, and Sophie, 34, are leaving Aynhoe to move to their next restoration project, Grade I-listed Parnham House in Dorset.

But first they will oversee the auctioning off of their bizarre collection of items.

Collected over 25 years, the catalogue includes a £35,000 Kate Moss portrait with hand-applied Swarovski crystals.

Every room of the fairytale pile is adorned with fascinating artworks, sculptures and unusual curios. There is a stuffed zebra rocking horse, circus lights and a plush red chair bearing the Queen’s royal cypher.

Books, furniture, taxidermy, modern design and objects such as the triceratops skull – which could make up to £250,000 alone – litter the huge home.

One standout item is a 1959 Le Mans tribute half-scale model of an Aston Martin DBR1 that is kept in the library.

The static model, worth around £15,000, was created to commemorate the victory by Roy Salvadori and Carroll Shelby at the 24-hour race. A pair of Zaffre glass and metal commodes, a painting of the moon and a collection of ammonite fossils are also for sale.

Before becoming a property developer with a taste for the eccentric, dad-of-three James made his fortune organising legal raves in the 1990s. Along with wife Sophie, he now works on projects restoring properties, including Aynhoe Park.

Nearly 700 lots make up the The Celebration Of A Modern Grand Tour online auction, which is being held over Wednesday and Thursday by auction house Dreweatts. James said: “It’s going to be hard to see these fascinating objects collected over so many years being sold, but they belong at Aynhoe.

“And one day I can go shopping again.”

House party...James with Sophie at Aynhoe, TV’s John and Lisa marry there, below

Art house...Hercules statue is among the many unusual items found in mansion