AN oil painting worth £30,000 has been stolen in a lightning raid at Borde Hill House, near Haywards Heath.

The oil on panel landscape painting by the Dutch artist Aert Van Der Neer was stolen from an office at the historic manor house and garden at 6.20pm on New Year's Day.

The thieves left the lights off to avoid attention but still

triggered an alarm.

They threw a lump of concrete through a ground floor window to get in.

The painting, just 4.5in by 9.5in, was lifted off a wall in the office.

The work - "An extensive frozen estuary with a village and numerous skaters" - is set in an ornate gilt gold frame, itself worth about £1,000.

Sgt Jon Pink, of Mid Sussex Police, said: "They were

obviously in and out of the premises quite quickly.

"The theft was committed in the dark. There was no light put on."

Andrewjohn Clarke, owner of the house, which dates back to 1580, said: "The painting was part of a collection the family has had over the years."

The house is not open to the public but the gardens are open every day and draw about 70,000 visitors a year.

Anyone with information should call Mid Sussex CID at Haywards Heath on 0845 60 70 999.

Earlier this week art thieves, believed to have been professionals, stole a £3 million Cezanne masterpiece from the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford during the city's millennium celebrations.

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