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The sculpture, outside the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill, was attacked on Monday, the arts centre said.

But Stewart Drew, chief executive of De La Warr Pavilion, said: "I think it's pretty obvious what has happened here, isn't it? Tensions are running high in the town for various reasons."

There’s the “dubious aristocrat, Thomas West, otherwise known as Lord De La Warr, who never even sailed the bay named for him or floated its main river. The lord who gave his name to the Delaware didn’t fare well in the New World despite his large footprint. . . . Some historians think he was poisoned when he died on his trip back to Virginia in 1618, and that his corpse was then tossed out to sea.”

It was repaired and sold to the 11th Earl De La Warr, William Sackville, in 2021 for £131,625, and put up near its original home.

Lord De La Warr, who purchased the original at auction, said Christopher Robin and his father used to play in the Five Hundred Acre Wood on their estate, which was the inspiration for AA Milne's Hundred Acre Wood.