Two men took a Leonardo off the wall at Drumlanrig Castle, and the lawyers who arranged its return were tried for extortion

The Dukes of Buccleuch own Drumlanrig Castle in Dumfriesshire, one of their family seats, and the Madonna of the Yarnwinder, attributed to Leonardo da Vinci. On 27 August 2003 two men posing as tourists overpowered a guide in the staircase hall, took the painting off the wall and left through a window. A guide later told the High Court in Edinburgh she saw one of them guarding the painting with an axe. They drove off in a white Volkswagen Golf. Estimates of its value ran from £30 million to £50 million. A £100,000 reward was offered, and insurers paid the family £3.2 million. The 9th Duke died on 5 September 2007. On 4 October 2007 police recovered the painting in the Glasgow office of the law firm HBJ Gateley Wareing. The solicitor Marshall Ronald had believed he was negotiating a reward with the insurer's lawyers; his contact was an undercover police officer. Five men stood trial in 2010, three lawyers and two private theft recoverers, accused of demanding £4.25 million for the painting's return. The jury cleared all five. No one has been convicted of the theft. In 2013 Ronald, by then struck off, sued the 10th Duke and the chief constable for £4.25 million. In 2015 the Court of Session rejected the claim against the Duke^†. The 10th Duke lent the painting to the Scottish National Gallery in 2009, and it remains on loan there^†.