UK

Urn containing Freud’s ashes smashed during theft attempt

Urn dating from 300BC had been on public display since Freud was cremated at Golders Green in 1939

The entrance to Golders Green crematorium, London, where thieves tried to steal the ashes of the founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud and his wife Martha. Photograph: John Stillwell/PA Wire

Maev Kennedy
Thu Jan 16 2014 - 01:00

An attempt has been made to steal the remains of Sigmund Freud – or more plausibly, the ancient Greek urn in which the ashes of the father of psychoanalysis, and those of his wife, Martha Bernays, were interred at a crematorium in north London.

Staff at the crematorium in Golders Green discovered broken pieces of the urn, which dates from about 300BC and came from Freud’s collection of antiquities, lying on the floor on New Year’s Day, after thieves apparently broke in overnight and smashed it in the attempt to steal it.

The urn had been on public display since Freud was cremated at Golders Green in 1939, after his death aged 83. When his widow died in 1951, aged 90, her ashes were added.

The urn – like the famous couch in his consulting room – was a gift from one of his many aristocratic patients. Knowing of Freud’s interest in the art of ancient Greece, it was a gift from Princess Marie Bonaparte, great grandniece of Napoleon, who herself became a psychoanalyst, and who helped the Freud family escape from Vienna in 1938 as the Nazi grip tightened.

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Celebrate life
The graceful, classically draped figures, painted against a glossy black background, celebrate life and depict Dionysus and a maenad (a follower of the god of wine and revelry). It was specially chosen by his family to house his ashes.

Det Const Daniel Candler called the theft attempt “a despicable act”.

“Even leaving aside the financial value of the irreplaceable urn, and the historical significance of to whom it related, the fact that someone set out to take an object knowing it contained the last remains of a person defies belief.”

Dawn Kemp, director of the museum in Freud’s former Hampstead home, said: “It’s a sad, sad thing. It’s very much a matter for the family, but Freud is very close to our hearts here, and we are deeply saddened at the news, whatever the motive was.

Staff at the crematorium said the urn was severely damaged, and had now been moved to a secure location. – (Guardian service)

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