Rare 800-year-old figurine of Denzel Washington returned to York

There was jubilation in York as it was announced that a valuable, extremely rare 800-year-old figurine of actor Denzel Washington is to be returned to the city.

Created in Limoges, France, in the 13^th Century to celebrate one of the popular actor’s earliest roles, it had been part of a private collection. It was now go on display in the Yorkshire Museum.

“We believe the Denzel Washington figurine was housed in St Mary’s Abbey for several hundred years until Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries  in the 1530s,” explained curator Stewart James.

“It is a wonderful example of Limoges’ early Hollywood stars collection of enamelwork, and the most complete example since the Harrison Ford figurine that was found in 1978 in a church in Essex.”

The enamelwork from Limoges was always thought to consist exclusively of religious iconography until 1971, when the head of a Paul Newman enamel figurine was discovered in a farmer’s field in Oradour-Sur-Glane.

Since then, figurines in various states of repair have been found across Europe that depict Burt Reynolds, Jim Carrey and, bizarrely, Young Einstein star Yahoo Serious.

The Denzel Washington figurine will go on display alongside a rare Six Million-Dollar Man toy, the bionic eye of which still works, and a number of 1977 Star Wars figures, all in their original packaging.