Duke deeply upset by theft of Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece

Published: 1:32PM GMT 03 March 2010

The Madonna With The Yarnwinder, by Leonardo da Vinci

The painting, The Madonna Of The Yarnwinder, was pronounced to have played a ""very special part"" in the hold up of the late Duke of Buccleuch and his family.

His son, the stream Duke of Buccleuch, told how the family had to expect the probability that the design - valued at �20 million in 2008 - could be broken after it was taken from Drumlanrig Castle, Dumfries-shire, in Aug 2003.

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Richard Montagu Douglas Scott, the 10th Duke of Buccleuch, pronounced it was a ""huge relief"" to find that the portrayal was unimpaired when it was recovered in 2007.

The 66-year-old Duke was giving justification on the third day of the hearing of five men indicted of plotting to extract �4.25 million for the protected lapse of the picture.

The High Court in Edinburgh listened that his father, John, died on Sep 4 2007, a month prior to the portrayal - one of around twenty functions of art by Leonardo in hold up - was recovered.

The Duke concluded with prosecutor Simon Di Rollo that his father, the ninth Duke, had been ""particularly fond"" of the painting.

He told the trial: ""It had played a really special piece in the family hold up in that both he and his father had mostly tended to transport with the portrayal in in between their assorted family homes.""

He combined later: ""It was hugely emotionally critical for all of us in the family, but I think for my father in particular, who felt majority keenly the loss.

""It was transparent to any one who knew him that he was deeply dissapoint by the loss and by the miss of any swell in recuperating the painting.""

On hearing are Marshall Ronald, 53, a barrister from Skelmersdale, Lancashire, Robert Graham, 57, of Ormskirk, Lancashire, and John Doyle, 61, additionally of Ormskirk.

Also in the wharf are dual Scottish solicitors, Calum Jones, 45, from Kilmacolm, Renfrewshire, and David Boyce, 63, from Airdrie in Lanarkshire.

They repudiate the charges opposite them. They are not indicted of the robbery.

The count told the justice the portrayal antiquated from around 1500 and is conjectural to be the usually Leonardo da Vinci design in in isolation hands.

He spoke of the significance in the art universe as a outcome of the singular series of functions constructed by the artist.

The justice listened how the magnum opus shaped piece of a special muster on Leonardo and his change at the National Gallery of Scotland in the 1990s.

The jury of 9 women and 6 men was told that the work was one of the main attractions at Drumlanrig.

"It"s a obvious portrayal and I do hold most people came quite to see it," the count told the court.

The hearing has listened about the day the magnum opus was stolen from the noble home on Aug 27, 2003.

The count spoke of the shock he felt and the outcome the burglary had on his staff.

He said: "Naturally I returned rught away to the castle. I patently longed for to establish, as far as I could, what had happened and additionally to be with the staff, who had been by what was patently a really frightening and formidable experience.

"I think they were in a state of shock, as in truth to a little border was I, since it was something you couldn"t presumably anticipate.

"They were fearful and dumbfounded and fundamentally there was a clarity of them asking themselves either they could have taken any pick march of movement that competence have prevented the theft."

Of the liberation of the painting, he said: "It was a outrageous service to find that it was undamaged."

Before any justification on Wednesday, the jury was taken to perspective the portrayal at the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh, where it is being exhibited.

Gallery executive Christopher Clarke, 57, told the justice he was called on to brand the portrayal at a military hire in Oct 2007 after the recovery.

The hearing additionally listened from Martin Kemp, emeritus highbrow of art story at Oxford University, who reckoned there are no some-more than twenty artworks by Leonardo in existence.

John Knight, 59, of auctioneers Christie"s, pronounced he valued the portrayal at �20 million in Jan 2008.

The box centres on an purported tract to get the late Duke of Buccleuch, his son and their insurers to compensate for the protected lapse of the painting. The five indicted repudiate conspiring to extract �4.25 million and an pick assign of attempted extortion. It is purported the corruption happened in in between Jul eighteen and Oct 4, 2007.

The hearing prior to Lady Dorrian continues.