[MSN] A rare oil painting by JMW Turner stolen from Leeds City Art Gallery.

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£1m raids on gallery
A rare oil painting by JMW Turner worth an estimated £800,000 has been stolen from Leeds City Art Gallery.
And other treasures, including two Henry Moore sculptures worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, have also been taken.
The Turner, measuring 10 inches long and seven inches wide, was created by the artist during a tour of Devonshire in 1813.
It is believed that it and seven other pieces of art stolen from the gallery in The Headrow were taken over a two-year period by a team looting storerooms. Today the police officer in charge of the investigation, Sergeant Graham Cave, told the YEP: "My personal feeling was they were either taken by someone with a good knowledge who had an outlet to sell them through.
"Or, alternatively, somebody has got the sculptures sitting on their mantelpiece painted white, totally oblivious to what they're really worth, with the Turner hung up on the wall.
"Sadly, I think the haul might now be lost forever."
The theft was only discovered after staff realized a bronze bust by Castleford-born Moore had gone missing in October, 1999.
A stock check revealed seven other items had also disappeared from stores sometime since 1997.
Detectives interviewed every member of staff but not a shred of evidence of foul play was found.
An alert was also put out to auctions houses and antique dealers to be on their guard if the pieces were put up for sale, but to no avail.
After 18 months police closed down the inquiry after all their leads dried up.
The Turner painting was bequeathed by the wealthy Leeds family the Luptons in 1952.
Fine art expert Giles Peppiatt, for Bonhams in Leeds, said: "Oil sketches on paper by JMWT are rare.
"The sketches produced on his 1813 tour of Devon where executed with great verve and rapidity, some taking as little as thirty minutes to paint.
"If we were valuing the Turner for insurance purposes we would probably suggest a figure of £800,000."
A conservative estimate of the value of the two Henry Moores' value would run into hundreds of thousands of pounds each.
A Leeds City Council spokesman said: "We can confirm a number of items went missing from the Leeds Art Gallery between January 1 1997 and January 1 1999 and, despite efforts to recover them, they remain outstanding.
"Details were also placed in the Art Theft magazine Trace, the European Art Theft Database and the Public Catalogue Foundation but no information has been forthcoming."
The missing haul:
Turner's Landscape in Devonshire (1813).
Henry Moore's Stringed Mother and Child (1938) and Holding Sculpture Double Head (1928).
A 19th century canvas by Lionel Constable called The Source of the Brent.
A rare watercolour of the interior of Leeds Town Hall by its architect Cuthbert Broderick.
Two plaques by Hamo Thornycroft – Oliver and Thomas.
A medal of the Sinking of the Belgrano by Michael Sandle.

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