Caretaker gave away ‘rotten’ Tudor antique worth £5m
THE caretaker of a stately home gave a Tudor artefact valued by auctioneers at £5million to an antiques dealer after dismissing it as “rotten” rubbish, an employment tribunal has heard.
Brian Wilson was removed from his role at Grade Ii-listed Seighford Hall, a 16th-century mansion in Staffordshire, after allowing Andrew Potter to salvage the overmantle in April 2020.
The nine-foot-wide oak piece features the coat of arms of Elizabeth I and had been on a chimney breast at the derelict former nursing home for centuries. Details of how the 460-year-old antique came to be given away emerged after Mr Wilson took his employers to tribunal for unfair dismissal.
Mr Wilson said that he had mistakenly thought it was “rotten” and had put it aside to be burned, but Mr Potter had asked if he could retrieve it.
Mr Wilson, who worked at the property from 1998 until his dismissal in November 2020, told the tribunal: “I let him have it, as far as I was concerned it was less rubbish for me to get rid of.” Mr Potter tried to sell the piece but Stafford borough council took out an injunction to stop him. This was later dropped. However, he has been unable to sell it and he is reportedly looking for buyers in the Middle East.
The hall’s managing director, Christopher Smith, instructed a building surveyor to carry out an inspection of the site, after which police visited it – in August or September 2020. Mr Smith made a formal report of theft after police said Mr Wilson had been unable to provide a crime reference number for a break-in he said he had reported in which items, including a tractor and the overmantle, had been stolen.
Judge Kate Hindmarch ruled that while Mr Wilson was unfairly dismissed and entitled to £4,065.82 for unlawful deduction from wages and pay for holidays he had not taken, he was not entitled to additional compensation because he had not sought permission to give away the overmantle.
She concluded [Mr Wilson] “was not credible in his explanations”, adding: “His behaviour was blameworthy and I find that the basic award should be nil.”