500-year-old Islamic plate sells for £5million
Baby-faced Kash Parkinson, 18, had been fleeing police on the wrong side of a dual carriageway at 70mph.
When an HGV blocked the thug’s path, PC Christopher Haxby got out of his car to approach Parkinson – who reversed and smashed into him using the open door of his stolen Ford Fiesta, a court heard.
It sent PC Haxby crashing on to the bonnet of the patrol car.
Judge Mark Savill told Parkinson: “Footage of the pursuit I’ve seen is truly chilling. That police officer could have been killed because of your selfishness.”
Just five weeks earlier, in May, the 5ft 2in yob had been released on bail by a court after being charged for stealing a Renault Scenic. The vehicle mounted A 500-YEAR-OLD ceramic dish has sold for £5.4million – after experts predicted it would fetch £300,000.
It makes the 17in blue and white floral-patterned charger plate one of the most expensive examples of Islamic art. It was produced during the reign of Ottoman sultan Mehmed II in the Turkish town of Iznik, a major centre for ceramics in the late 15th century.
It belonged to a former president of the Archaeological Society of Alexandria, Egypt, who died in 1955 before passing it into an American private collection.
Bidding soared beyond all expectation at Sotheby’s in London. Edward Gibbs, the auction house’s Middle East chairman, said: “It is one of the most important pieces of Iznik pottery in private hands, and a significant discovery to the field of Ottoman art.”