Before we come to that, though, let's remind ourselves why it was worth running to ground in the first place. The story of how the hare found its way back to Williams relies on a string of lucky chances - one of which I was able to play a part in myself. I'm a little bit overwhelmed to see it again.” And then I made this thinking 'This is something really special'. “I made it because I was no-one going nowhere. “It was like an apprentice piece,” he told BBC Four's cameras. And yet, here they were in the same room. The artist hadn't seen his creation for over 20 years by then, and had long since given up any hope of ever finding it again. Not one, but two BBC documentaries were required to bring the hare back home and let Williams hold it again in the Summer of 2009. It had launched a scandal when it was finally found, been sold in a bankruptcy auction at Sotheby's and found itself spirited overseas by an anonymous buyer. Beginning life in Williams' Gloucestershire workshop in 1979, it had since spent 30 months buried in a park near Bedford, sparked a global craze among the world's treasure hunters and sold over a million books. The hare had endured a long, strange journey to make this reunion possible.

‘I thought it'd be nice to really, really bury treasure - to actually put gold in the cold, wet earth’ I thought I'd never, ever see that again.” (1) “There we are: ‘KW’ in a circle, a crown for gold - ‘750’, which is 18 carat gold. “I recognise my work in the way a mother would recognise her babies,” he says. Laying the medallion flat on the table before him, Williams attaches a jeweller's eyepiece to one lens of his glasses and bends for a closer look. Its eye, a tiny ruby, glints red for a second as it catches the light. A tiny bell dangles from each of he hare's feet, flanking the splayed frog and smiling sun which hang from the its belly. The medallion is just over five inches long and shaped like a trotting hare, its outstretched body filled with a swirl of intricate gold filigree.

He opens the box, removes a layer of protective bubble-wrap, and lifts out a gold medallion which he suspends in front of his face by its chain. Waiting for him is a flat red box, about eight inches square, with the lid closed to conceal its contents. He climbs out of the back, walks through the lobby to the hotel's wood-panelled Armfield Room and sits at a table there.

The TV footage shows Kit Williams pulling up in front of London's Durrants Hotel in a smart black Range Rover.

The masquerade kit williams