A SCULPTURE depicting the devil has been donated to the Ashmolean museum by author and former member of parliament Lord Jeffrey Archer.

The Oxford museum was delighted to announce the satanic statue would be on display in the Ashmolean’s Nineteenth Century Gallery.

The devilishly-designed sculpture stands at 80cm high and is only one of three known large-scale casts of the statue, another being in the Los Angeles County Museum.

Titled Satan/Mephistopheles, the bronze artwork was by Jean-Jacques Feuchère who was born in Paris in 1807. It was one of his most famous works and was reproduced many times in a smaller scale.

Curator of European Art at the Ashmolean Matthew Winterbottom said: "Feuchère’s Satan is one of the most forceful and expressive examples of brooding melancholy in Romantic art and is often seen as a precursor of Rodin’s Thinker.

"The Ashmolean is profoundly grateful to Lord and Lady Archer and to Arts Council England, for making this important work available to the Ashmolean.

"The sculpture will be displayed in one of the museum’s most popular galleries for all of our visitors."

The piece can already be viewed at the Ashmolean. Entrance is free.