Why Britain’s top banker has built a wedding cake in his back garden

As a vast 12m-high wedding cake sculpture – that you can walk inside – is unveiled on the lawn at his stately home Waddesdon Manor, Lord Rothschild, scion of the banking dynasty, tells Geordie Greig about his lifelong passion for collecting, and the time he saved Lucian Freud from the clutches of the Krays

Perfect marriage: Vasconcelos’s ‘Wedding Cake’ in the grounds of Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire; inset, Lord Rothschild (Joana Vasconcelos Studio/PA)

Lord Rothschild’s name is carved in stone on a frieze at the British Museum as a major art patron. Now he has stirred debate in the art world by buying a vast wedding cake for his back garden and it is on show for the public . It is the latest addition to the spectacular old masters at the National Trust house, Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire.

Is it a modern masterpiece or a kitsch piece of fun? You can walk inside it and make your own mind up. He explains why the path of an art patron can lead to gangsters as well as giant teapots.

How did a giant wedding cake end up on your lawn?