Thieves have tried to steal the ashes of Sigmund Freud and his wife.

They broke an ancient Greek urn that contained the couple’s remains after breaking into a cemetery in Golders Green, north London.

The ‘irreplaceable’ urn, which was a gift to the founding father of psychoanalysis from Princess Marie Bonaparte, the great-grandniece of Napoleon, was ‘severely damaged’. The would-be thieves left empty-handed.

The urn was placed in the crematorium following Freud’s death in Hampstead in September 1939.

The ashes of his wife, Martha, were added to the urn when she died in 1951, aged 90.

A spokesman for the crematorium said the urn, which was ‘severely damaged’, has since been moved to a secure location and that security was now under review.

The crematorium in Hoop Lane has been the scene for the funerals of many British celebrities, including authors Bram Stoker, Enid Blyton and more recently Amy Winehouse and Peter Sellers.