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The initial wave of moving vans arrived today at Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s new residence in Norfolk, transporting an impressive collection of paintings and fine art across three large trucks.
The fleet of heavy goods vehicles indicates that Andrew might be settling into Marsh Farm ahead of the Easter holiday.
Trailing the trucks was a Tesco delivery van, presumably stocked with kitchen essentials, although it’s noted that Andrew typically favors shopping at Waitrose.
The removal trucks, operated by Gander & White—a company holding a Royal Warrant—were seen at the five-bedroom home on the Sandringham estate early this morning.
However, despite the extensive art collection, Marsh Farm lacks the space to accommodate his extensive array of 60 teddy bears, previously housed in their own room at Royal Lodge.
Andrew is currently hiding at nearby Wood Farm after his arrest last month over the Epstein Files and claims of misconduct in public office when he was a UK trade envoy.Â
Security fences, CCTV, broadband and Sky TV have all been installed since he was slung out of Royal Lodge, Windsor, by King Charles. Inside, new flooring, carpets and decorating has been carried out as well was work on its large garden.
Gander & White, which has the slogan ‘custodians of the irreplaceable,’ specialises in transporting fine art and has worked for prestigious clients, including the National Portrait Gallery in London.
One of three lorries specialised in carrying art arrived at Marsh Farm today – Andrew’s future home
A Tesco delivery truck was also in the convoy crossing the Sandringham Estate
The removal lorries from Gander & White, which has a Royal Warrant, arrived at five-bedroom property on the Sandringham estate early this morning
Marsh Farm is now surrounded by new fences and other security such as CCTV ahead of Andrew’s move
Founded in 1933, they offer a specialist service packing, transporting and installing fine art pieces for clients from art dealers to auction houses to private collectors and museums around the world.
It states on their website: ‘We have been entrusted with caring for some of the world’s most precious objects and artworks, safeguarding them with the utmost care and discretion for over 90 years.’
Andrew was known to have a huge number of art pieces lining the walls of his 30-room grade II mansion, Royal Lodge in Windsor.
Last year it was revealed that those pieces belonging to the Royal Collection Trust would be handed back when he moved into Marsh Farm.
Pieces from the Royal Collection Trust are spread across royal exhibitions, as well as being used to furnish royal residences.
Workmen have been busy putting the finishing touches to the Marsh Farm renovations over the last few days, with Andrew expected to move in at the start of next month.
He is currently living in nearby Wood Farm and has not been seen since returning from the police station following his arrest on February 19.
Andrew leaving Aylsham Police Station after he was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office
Months of renovations are being carried out at Marsh Farm with the former Duke of York expected to move into the property in April.
For the time being Andrew is staying at nearby Wood Farm where he was arrested last Thursday on suspicion of misconduct in public office.
He is accused of sharing sensitive information with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein during his time as special representative for international trade and investment.
The former prince has not been seen since he returned to Sandringham after his arrest.
However his security team were spotted driving around the nearby village of Wolferton.
Shut away at Wood Farm on the Sandringham Estate, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been twiddling his thumbs while his old stamping ground in the Middle East is torn apart by war.
But if the military conflict has provided a welcome distraction from his own headline-grabbing travails, then it has also cut off what might have been the last remaining escape route for the beleaguered former Duke of York.
Andrew is currently under orders from his brother the King to stay indoors and has little to look forward to aside from the tea and Abernethy biscuits he is served upon waking each morning.
Until the tumultuous events of the past few weeks days, 66-year-old Andrew was said to have been contemplating fleeing to either Bahrain or Abu Dhabi where he could still expect the warmest of welcomes and enjoy hugely lucrative financial connections.
Indeed, the Daily Mail was told exclusively by a royal source that his early morning arrest last month came following an urgent tip-off to a senior courtier that ‘Andrew was getting his passport ready for a midnight flit’ and might be about to hoof it to the Middle East on a private jet, most likely to Bahrain which does not have a formal extradition treaty with the UK.
But with bombs and missiles falling across the region daily, any lingering hopes of reinventing himself among the Arab elite appear to have gone up in multiple puffs of smoke.
The US-Israel war against Iran also looks set to affect the movements of his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, who has her own ties in the region, and their daughters. Indeed, Beatrice, 37, and Eugenie, 35, have caused much eyebrow-raising in royal circles by pursuing their own business interests there and have made multiple jaunts to the region in recent years.
‘This is a huge blow to all of them,’ a close family friend told the Daily Mail. ‘There is no way any of them are going to go to the Gulf and Middle East region for a long time to come. It is far too dangerous for them, just as it is for everybody else.’
The Yorks have made multiple jaunts to the UAE in recent years. Pictured: Beatrice and Andrew in Abu Dhabi in 2008
All four have been enthusiastic travellers to the Gulf since the early 2000s and always receive the red carpet treatment.
The Yorks are also said to have a palatial home available to them in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates. Bestowed upon them by the UAE royal family, the four-bedroom villa is said to be worth at least £10million.
But speaking to the Daily Mail, a British diplomatic source who used to rub shoulders with the Yorks in the Gulf said: ‘It’s inconceivable that they’ll be visiting the region now, certainly not while the war is going on and it could, of course, be an indefinite war.’
Andrew has known for years that the Middle East with its billionaire sheiks and emirs could provide a seam of earnings, for himself and those he was close to.
His links to Abu Dhabi’s royal family go back to his days at Gordonstoun, the Scottish public school, where he met the future Sheik Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, now UAE president and known to Andrew as MBZ. His family are one of the richest in the world with an estimated fortune of £225billion. They own a vast property portfolio in London as well as a majority stake in Manchester City football club.