Leonardo raid ‘deeply upset’ duke

A duke was "deeply upset" by the theft of a Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece and the lack of progress in recovering it, his son has told a court.

The Madonna of the Yarnwinder was said to have played a "very special part" in the life of the late Duke of Buccleuch.

His son, the current duke, said it was a "huge relief" when the artwork was eventually recovered undamaged.

Five men are on trial accused of trying to extort £4.25m for its return. They are not charged with the robbery.

The painting was taken from Drumlanrig Castle, north of Dumfries, in August 2003.

Richard Montagu Douglas Scott, the 10th Duke of Buccleuch, said his family had had to contemplate that the artwork – valued at £20m in 2008 – might have been destroyed.

He was giving evidence on the third day of the trial of five men accused of plotting to extort £4.25m for the safe return of the piece.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard that his father, John, died on 4 September 2007, a month before the painting was recovered.

‘Emotionally important’

He agreed with prosecutor Simon Di Rollo that his father had been "particularly fond" of the painting.

He said: "It was hugely emotionally important for all of us in the family, but I think for my father in particular, who felt most keenly its loss.

"It was clear to anyone who knew him that he was deeply upset by the loss and by the lack of any progress in recovering the painting."

On trial are Marshall Ronald, 53, Robert Graham, 57, and John Doyle, 61, all from Lancashire, Calum Jones, 45, from Renfrewshire, and David Boyce, 63, from Lanarkshire.

They have denied conspiring to extort £4.25m and an alternative charge of attempted extortion.

The offence is alleged to have taken place between July and October 2007.

The trial continues.</p

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Rare Burns’ widow letter unveiled

A letter written by the widow of Robert Burns in the years following his death is set to be handed over to the National Library of Scotland.

Dated 1804, Jean Armour writes about the death of two of her children and how she remains in the home she shared with the poet before his death in 1796.

The page was discovered in a New York junk shop last year.

It is thought the letter was intended for Maria Riddell, a woman from a local landed family, who lived in Dumfries.

It was found by American scholar Dr Nancy Groce who by coincidence had recently produced a symposium on Robert Burns at the Library of Congress.

She paid $75 for the letter, one of the few written by Jean Armour.

In the letter, the poet’s wife begins by thanking "Madam" for her "kind inquiry after my famaly [sic] and that you wished to know what was become of Mr Burns children".

She also writes about the death of her sons Francis Wallace, who is thought to have died in his early teens, and Maxwell Burns, who died two years after Burns.

Speaking ahead of the hand-over, Dr Groce said: "I am delighted that this significant letter will be going to a good home.

"I hope its availability will increase public awareness of Jean Armour Burns, a remarkable and frequently underappreciated woman whose understanding and support assisted Robert Burns to pursue his art."</p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.