[CPProt.net] FBI JOIN HUNT FOR PAINTING

[MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)]

FBI JOIN HUNT FOR PAINTING
Published in Whitehaven News on Thursday, December 22nd 2005


A £30 MILLION painting by Leonardo da Vinci which was stolen from Drumlanrig
Castle, north of Dumfries, is on a list of the American FBI’s top 10 most
wanted artworks.

A dedicated art crime team of special agents from the US Federal Bureau of
Investigation is now probing the theft of the Madonna of the Yarnwinder in
August 2003.

Despite a lengthy investigation by Dumfries and Galloway Police, neither the
thieves nor the painting – a 16th century masterpiece – have ever been
found.

Now the work is featured alongside stolen works such as The Scream by Edvard
Munch in the FBI’s top 10.

The painting, which depicts the Madonna with the infant Jesus holding a
cross-shaped yarnwinder, was stolen when two thieves joined a tour of the
castle.

They overpowered a guard and escaped through a kitchen window with the
masterpiece.

http://www.businessgazette.co.uk/