THE mere event of its being moved from one wall to another in Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery has provoked a lively debate in our Letters Page these past few days over the aesthetic value of Sir Alfred Munnings' painting of Solario.

The humdinger horse won the St Leger in 1925 as well as the Coronation Cup and the Ascot Gold Cup the year after and set a record auction price of 47,000 guineas when he was sold after the death of his owner, Blackburn baronet Sir John Rutherford, in February, 1932.

But overlooked in this little brouhaha has been the far greater sensation associated with Solario in the same year that his portrait - now arguably worth £1 million and one of the most valuable paintings in the museum's collection - was bequeathed to Blackburn in the will of the brewing magnate to whom he belonged . . . the daring theft of the solid gold cup he had won six years before at Epsom. It has never been seen since.

It was an outrage that gripped the public's imagination. When it was discovered that October morning 68 years ago, hundreds flocked to the town's Museum and Art Gallery upstairs above the town's public library, hoping to see the scene of the crime.

And when the culprit was eventually placed in the dock, there wasn't a seat to be had in court, such was the fascination for the story of how the Coronation Cup vanished. Solario himself was worth vastly more than the cup and the £1,250 that the Munnings' painting was insured for when it was first put on show on loan at the gallery in 1929. Super-rich Sir John, one of Blackburn Rovers' first-ever players, inheritor of his father's partnership in Shaw's Brewery in Blackburn town centre, ex-mayor of the town, Tory MP for Darwen for 27 years from 1895 and owner of an estate in Scotland as well as a now-vanished mansion at Beardwood in Blackburn, could actually afford to turn down the Aga Khan's offer of £100,000 - equal to more than £3.2 million today - for his colt after it won his first classic, the Leger.

But even though, by comparison, the 18-carat Coronation Cup - weighing 30 ounces and nine inches high - was valued at only £250 when it was stolen, its disappearance only months after going on display was rated as grand and daring larceny by East Lancashire's public.

Indeed, the thief was portrayed as something of a master criminal by the Northern Daily Telegraph. It told of how the glass was smashed in the showcase holding the cup, as well as that in a panel on the door to the museum. A triangular pane of glass was also found to have been removed from a skylight in the lending library. The crime was made to appear even more audacious when it was later reported that the villain had even taken a pair of scales from the building's cellar to weigh the golden goblet.

"Judging by the remarkably cool and careful way in which the coup was planned and carried out, it is highly probable that the thief was equally careful to cover up his tracks . . . it is believed the police have not come into possession of any really valuable clues," the NDT said. But the police were far from clueless - though, as weeks went by without an arrest, some public relations tactics had to be employed to show they were hot on the thief's trail.

They quickly called in a fingerprint expert from West Riding Constabulary. Though it was a whole 30 years after the first conviction in Britain secured on fingerprint evidence, it was the first time that the Blackburn force had used this branch of forensic science. It soon told them who to look for.

Meantime, in the immediate aftermath of the crime, excitement ran high. As soon as the barrier at the foot of the stairs to the museum was removed by the police two days after the theft, crowds rushed up - only to find the newly-repaired door still locked.

"Most of the people pretended to take an interest in the pictures in the Art Gallery for a few minutes but quickly left," the NDT reported. "Within an hour, hundreds of people had climbed the stairs, only to return almost immediately."

Four days after the cup vanished, Blackburn police said they knew the thief's identity and that forces throughout the country were "making every effort to locate him." Three days after that, the town's Chief Constable, George Looms, announced a £20 reward - worth £640 now - for the recovery of the trophy and issued a detailed description of the wanted man, who was said to be a native of Nottingham, even down to the Union Jack and bulldog tattooed on his arm. Evidently, still keen to show the police would triumph, a month later Mr Looms was telling guests at the annual dinner of Blackburn Chamber of Trade that there were good chances of regaining the cup or at least getting the man who had stolen it.

"Within 24 hours we knew who had taken it and we know whom we want when we can pick him up," he said, drawing loud cheers.

But it was almost four weeks before an arrest was made at Keighley and 34-year-old homeless labourer Joseph Burns appeared before Blackburn magistrates to be sent for trail after it was alleged he had admitted the crime and that fingerprint evidence proved he had done it.

"Extensive inquiries have been made all over the country for the recovery of the cup, without success," Chief Constable Looms told the bench as Burns was sent for trial at the town's next Quarter Sessions, despite his plea to be committed to Manchester Assizes instead because of "local prejudice" in Blackburn over loss of the legacy cup from the town.

When he came up at the Sessions, Burns appeared in a packed court room. Crowds queued to get in and many could not. The NDT told how the body of the court was filled with "many people well known in the public life of the town." Burns has no chance against the evidence against him. Museum staff testified to his being seen on the premises two or three times before the Coronation Cup was stolen. A stallholder of Blackburn Market told of his buying a chisel from him earlier on the day of the crime. And the fingerprint evidence provided by the experts from West Riding confirmed his guilt.

But the court was told that when he was asked what he had done with the cup, Burns refused to divulge.

"That would not be fair.

"I have admitted it and that is sufficient," he told the police.

Even so, he asked leniency, saying that he was at "just about that point in life when if a man got another chance, he would appreciate it."

What the Recorder also took into account before passing sentence were 15 cases of housebreaking and one attempted one - two in the Blackburn area - that Burns admitted and his amazing record before that.

He was a native of Keighley, not Nottingham as the Chief Constable had said during the manhunt.

But after working in textile mills in Yorkshire as a youth and serving in the First World War, he had abandoned life as a labourer and enlisted in the Grenadier Guards in 1920, only to be discharged for misconduct the following year.

Yet, he was still able afterwards to enlist in the Border Regiment and serve three years in India before being sentenced in 1926 to 12 months hard labour and "discharged with ignominy," only for him to sign on again the following year - this time, with the King's Own Scottish Borderers - and desert in 1929. And even though he had afterwards done four short terms of hard labour for subsequent convictions, Burns was still on the run from the Army when was caught for stealing the Coronation Cup - for which he got more hard labour, 15 months of it.

Generous as Sir John's bequests to Blackburn were when he died aged 77, the biggest beneficiary of the bachelor baronet's £528,000 will - the equivalent of almost £17 million now - was his young great-nephew, John Chalmers, the barrister Tory MP for Edmonton, who became one of the richest men in the Commons when he was left cash equal to more than £800,000 in today's terms and the residue of the racehorse owner's estate, on condition that he changed his surname to Rutherford.

It was a name whose links with East Lancashire were briefly restored in 1947 when he was adopted as Tory candidate for the Burnley seat in 1947.

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