A 16 year-old from Amsterdam has been arrested following the discovery of antiquities worth an estimated €150,000 at his home, police said on Wednesday.

Police said he ‘had been fascinated with art and archaeology from a young age’ and wanted to take the artefacts home to study them at his leisure.

According to the Parool, he took the figurine and other items from a Dutch library and museum devoted to rare esoteric books – the Embassy of the Free Mind – on Amsterdam’s Keizersgracht.

Police were put on the trail of the young thief when he showed a picture of a statuette dating from between 600 to 400 BC to a collector who recognised it an item she had sold earlier to an Amsterdam museum. She subsequently called the police.

At the home of the boy police found various statuettes, books and a scroll. Police said all the artefacts have been returned their rightful owner which has since tightened its security measures.