Madonna of the Yarnwinder
One of Leonardo da Vinci’s paintings, Madonna of the Yarnwinder or Buccleuch Madonna, depicts the Virgin Mary and Christ child looking at a tool used to wind yarn. This painting might not be his most famous but it was incredibly influential on later paintings of the Madonna and child. So when it was stolen, it caused quite the uproar.
Madonna of the Yarnwinder
Just to give you a little background, we’re going to talk about the painting. I’m assuming you know who da Vinci is. He moved to Florence from Milan after the French invasion of 1499, on the way to Florence he spent some time in Isabella d’Este’s court in Mantua, Lombardy. While he was there, he drew a quick “cartoon” portrait of Isabella and once she saw it she was determined to have a finished da Vinci to add to her collection. When he arrived in Florence, Isabella used a contact there to try and get him to agree to a commission from her. In one of the letters between Isabella and her contact they mention that da Vinci is preoccupied with mathematics and a small painting depicting Madonna holding the child on her lap holding a yarn winder that they’re both looking at. This is the earliest known mention of this painting we’ll be discussing today.
The painting was being created for Florimond Robertet, although there is some debate about whether or not he ever actually received the painting. Some argue that since there are two very similar versions of this painting (Buccleuch Madonna and Landsdowne Madonna) and that da Vinci kept one as a prime version (one that his students could reference in their work) in his workshop and the other one was sent to Robertet.
There is a small issue of provenance with these two paintings but the one we’re focused on today, Madonna of the Yarnwinder, is the one that scholars agree is most likely to have been created by da Vinci. This painting’s earliest documented owner was Marie-Joseph duc d’Hostun et de Tallard who purchased it at auction in Paris in 1756. After this, it entered the Buccleuch Collection in 1767 with the marriage of the 3rd Duke of Buccleuch to Lady Elizabeth Montagu who brought with her a substantial art collection inherited from her parents. Madonna of the Yarnwinder hung in the ancestral home of the Buccleuch’s Drumlanrig Castle, Dunfries and Galloway, Scotland until 2003.
The Theft
On August 27, 2003 two men pulled up to Drumlanrig Castle. They got out of the car and walked up to the entrance of the building where tour guide Alison Russell was waiting to greet them. Instead of taking the two men on a tour of the building, vast art collection, and grounds, she was roughly shoved to the ground and told to be quiet while the two men used an axe to pry Madonna of the Yarnwinder off the wall and ran back to their car to get away. The whole thing took just a few minutes.
The day after the theft it made news around the world, it’s a 500 year old painting created by one of the most famous artists in the world and it was estimated to be worth around £40 million. So it makes sense that people would be reporting on this. A reward was offered and the police kicked off a major investigation but the thieves continued to evade them and the case went cold.
Four Years Later
A man named Robbie Graham owned a business where he would reunite stolen items with their owners called Stolen Stuff Reunited. In June 2007 two men known as J and Frank approached Graham and his business partner Jackie Doyle and asked him to try to locate Madonna of the Yarnwinder, reunite it with its owners and claim the reward.
Graham and Doyle were interested but they wanted to make sure they went through their investigation legally so they got in touch with a lawyer, Marshall Ronald. He helped them communicate with a representative of the Duke of Buccleuch and a reward of £2 was agreed upon to be delivered when/if the painting is recovered.
What they didn’t know was that their lawyer, Ronald was playing both sides. He had separately contacted a representative of the Duke before any of this happened, saying that he could arrange for the delivery of the painting within 72 hours. So he sent J and Frank to Stolen Stuff Reunited to have them inadvertently help out with the plan.
The group that was holding the painting agreed to hand the painting over to Graham and Doyle for a cut of the reward money, they wanted £700,000. So a plan was formed, Graham would meet up with the group to get the painting in exchange for the agreed upon cash, he would then take it to the law offices of HBJ Gately Wareing in Glasgow to repatriate the painting to the Duke’s representative and claim the reward.
On Wednesday October 3, 2007 Graham drove to the parking lot of a pub in Hale Village, a few miles southeast of Liverpool City center. J, the man he had met before who approached him about this opportunity was the one who met him and took the money but he didn’t have the painting. By the time he returned, four hours later, he handed Graham and Dyole, who had joined him by this time, a package covered with a white blanket. They took a peek inside before calling Ronald to say “the lady is on her way home” (Graham, 2023).
At 11:05 the following day, October 4 2007, Graham, Doyle, and Ronald pulled up outside the offices of HBJ Gately Wareing expecting to be met with a heroes welcome but instead they were met with swarms of police. Remember how I said the deal had been reached with a representative of the Duke, well was an undercover cop, this whole thing was a sting operation and they charged the three men with conspiracy to extort. The reward had never been real. The police had caught wind of the painting surfacing and when Ronald reached out to say he could arrange for delivery they jumped at the chance to find the piece, unfortunately Graham and Doyle were caught in the middle.
Two and a half years later, in 2010, the trial was held with the defence arguing that Graham and Doyle were led on by police and in the end, their charges were found not proven (not sure if that’s the same as not guilty, but they were released).
To date no one has been arrested for the theft of Madonna of the Yarnwinder and the reward has never been claimed. The painting now hangs in the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh on long-term loan from the Duke of Buccleuch where it can, hopefully, be safe.
Works Cited
Graham, Olivia. “How My Dad Rescued a £40 million da Vinci Masterpiece”. BBC. 2023. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-66531242