A SCOTTISH aristocrat has told a trial of his family's turmoil when one of their most treasured works of art was stolen - and their relief when it was returned, undamaged, more than four years later.
A Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece was prised from the wall of Drumlanrig Castle, Dumfriesshire, by armed raiders posing as tourists in August 2003.
Five men - three lawyers and two clients linked to a private investigation firm in the Liverpool area - are now in the dock at the High Court in Edinburgh, accused of hatching a plot to demand more than pound(s)4 million for the painting's safe return.
Wallet HandbagsRichard Walter John Montagu-Douglas-Scott, 56, the 10th Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, said the masterpiece, known as Madonna of the Yarnwinder, had been deeply valued by his father. Sadly, the ninth Duke died just four weeks before the painting was recovered.
His son told the trial yesterday that he was on another part of the estate when he heard about the robbery, in which staff were threatened with an axe.
"Naturally I returned immediately to the castle. I clearly wanted to ascertain as quickly as I could what had happened, and to be with the staff who had obviously been through a very difficult experience," he said.
Asked by advocate depute Simon Di Rollo, prosecuting, if his father had been fond of the picture, the Duke told him: "He certainly was. It had played a special part in our family life."
He said both his father and his grandfather had often taken the painting with them when Replica Bedat & CO they travelled between the family's different homes.
The work had Replica Burett Watches also been loaned to the National Gallery of Scotland and other galleries in Britain and abroad over the years for special exhibitions.
"It has aroused great interest because of the limited number of works by Leonardo da Vinci."
The Duke said staff at Drumlanrig Castle had been deeply upset by the robbery.
"I think they were in a state of shock as, to some extent, so was I because it is something you cannot possibly anticipate."
Marshall Ronald, 53, of Skelmersdale, Lancashire; Robert Graham, 57, of Ormskirk, Lancashire; John Doyle, 61, of Ormskirk, Lancashire; Calum Jones, 45, of Kilmacolm, Renfrewshire; and David Boyce, 63, of Airdrie, Lanarkshire all deny conspiring to extort pound(s)4.25m or, alternatively, attempting to extort the money.
The trial continues today.
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