LONDON.-British detectives have recovered Leonardo da Vinci’s, Madonna and the Yarnwinder in Glasgow , Scotland during a raid involving four police units at 11am GMT. Five men were arrested in connection with the theft which occurred on August 27, 2003 from Drumlanrig Castle , near Thornhill , Scotland . The recovery of Madonna and the Yarnwinder, which is listed on the FBI’s list of Top Ten Art Crimes, ends a four year search for the work which is worth an estimated US$60 million.

In 1911, da Vinci’s Mona Lisa was stolen from the walls of the Louvre by an employee who exited the museum after hours with the painting under his coat. Twenty-seven months later the work was recovered when the thief attempted to sell the work to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence , Italy .

The Art Loss Register reports that almost a quarter of ALR recovery cases are identified within a year of the original theft or loss, with four years the average time between loss and identification. The Art Loss Register currently has four da Vinci’s listed on its international database as missing or stolen.