Firemen unearth stolen £1 million statue

Belgian firefighters have unearthed a stolen statue of a French king which could be worth nearly £1 million.

The 17th century bronze statue of Louis the Sun King was stolen in 1998. A Belgian man bought it for a fraction of its worth and is thought to have buried it in a lock up after realising its true value.

The unique statue of King Louis XIV, worth between 48 and 60 million Belgian francs (about £760,500 to £950,700), was taken from the French palace of Vaux-le-Vicomte.

It was bought along with a sculpture of Hercules, worth between one and three million Belgian francs (about £15,800 to £47,500), at a market for 300,000 Belgian francs (about £4,750).

Federal police called in the fire brigade to dig up the garage in Zonhoven, Belgium. It is thought the Hercules sculpture was buried near the man's house in Lommel.