[MSN] Madonna with the yarnwinder recovered one month after death of its owner, the Duke of Buccleuch.

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The biggest art robbery in UK history
It was the biggest art heist in UK history, with even the FBI being called
in to help with the investigation.

The theft in 2003 of Leonardo da Vinci's Madonna with the Yarnwinder from
Drumlanrig Castle, north of Dumfries, was classed by the US bureau alongside
some of the most expensive and notorious worldwide. It was put it on the
list alongside crimes such as the large-scale looting of Iraq after the 2003
war.

The theft left the Duke of Buccleuch, who owned the painting, heartbroken.
It had been in his family for more than 250 years, but was stolen in broad
daylight from his ancestral home.

It was a month to the day after his death, and four years after it was
stolen, that the £30m painting - the finest in the duke's collection - was
found.

"How sad it seems," an expert in art theft with great knowledge of the case
said last night, "that it was found now, and not a month ago."

Last night Sir Timothy Clifford, the former director general of the National
Galleries of Scotland and expert in Renaissance art, told The Herald:
"Although we must rejoice and be very, very relieved that it looks to have
been found, it is so, so sad that the last Duke of Buccleuch passed away
before it was recovered. It is one of the finest works from the Renaissance
period in the country. It is a really big thing."

The duke, born Walter John Montagu Douglas Scott and one of Britain's
biggest landowners, died after a short illness a month ago, aged 83, still
the victim of a theft which pained him sorely.

Only last year, the theft had moved up to seventh on the FBI's own art crime
list, and its image was displayed prominently on its website.

The case appeared on the BBC's Crimewatch two years ago, but until last
night no developments had been announced or reported.

Sir Timothy added: "There were so many rumours when it was stolen. I know
the duke was hit very hard by its loss.

"But these paintings do appear again, because they are impossible to fence'
- they are so difficult to sell on in the black market, because they are so
famous and well-known.

"The most important thing is that all important paintings of this type are
properly photographed and we know where they are. And I may say, if it is
not too cheeky of me, that if it is recovered, it could be loaned to the
National Galleries of Scotland."

The painting shows a young, beautiful Madonna with a child Christ holding
the winder, which alludes to the domesticity of Mary and the child's
eventual fate on the cross.

The Madonna has a disputed history, although Leonardo is thought to have
worked on it between 1500 and 1510 for the Secretary of State to French King
Louis XII.

There are two versions of the painting and it is not agreed among experts
how much work Leonardo did on either. The other version is in the US.

The Buccleuch estate holds one of the UK's finest private art collections,
worth £400m, including masterpieces by Rembrandt and Holbein.

In the robbery, on August 27, 2003, two men dressed as tourists overpowered
a young guide and stole the painting from its display cabinet.

With two accomplices, they escaped in a white Volkswagen Golf abandoned
nearby.

It has been speculated the painting may have been damaged in the process, as
its frame was removed.

Experts in art theft have long said they believed the painting was still
somewhere in Scotland, rather than in London or abroad.

Unless stolen "to order", the fame of the painting and the magnitude of its
theft would have made its sale on the black market very difficult. The
painting, experts say, was likely to have been hidden in a small space, but
could not have been rolled up - it is oil-painted on to board.

Julian Radcliffe, chairman of the Art Loss Register, said: "If you had asked
police in 2003 whether this was likely to be recovered, they would not have
been optimistic. It is fortunate it has been recovered so quickly. It is
very difficult for people to sell art of any value on so the main question
is why people steal it in the first place."

Whatever the details of the case, the Buccleuch family have been lucky -
some major art thefts are never resolved. The Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum
in Boston was hit by a huge art heist in 1990. Among the pictures taken were
a Vermeer, two Rembrandts, and a Degas.

The Art Loss Register in London records more than 180,000 stolen artworks on
its database.

Its statistics show that only 15% are recovered in the following 20 years. 

12:43am today

By PHIL MILLER, Arts Correspondent

http://www.theherald.co.uk/