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The Missing Madonna · BBC Radio Scotland

Episode 2 - The Hunt

August 25, 2023·25 min·2 clips
The 'criminal mastermind with a stolen Da Vinci' trope comes from a 1962 James Bond film — and police now exploit it by sending undercover cops posing as Doctor No buyers.
The alarm is still ringing. A Leonardo da Vinci painting has been taken from Drumlanrig Castle, and the thieves are speeding away in a clapped-out Golf DTI. Now what? The episode follows the first police hunt for the missing Madonna, starting with escape routes before the odds turn grim. Stolen art rarely comes home. The Association of British Insurers says only about 20 percent of stolen art is ever seen again. Wow. Dumfries and Galloway police throw everything at the case, while airports and ferry terminals are watched and the press tracks each development. Four weeks pass. By the end of September 2003, there is still no significant breakthrough, and the painting feels farther away. DCI Peter McAdam keeps his voice steady, describing a major inquiry with the Metropolitan Police Art and Antiques Squad and other forces pulled into the search. Then the car starts talking. The man who sold the Golf to John the Geordie comes forward with a registration number that will not name the thieves, but it does open a route. Road cameras show the Golf had gone down to Carlisle, and police think it was probably left there the week before the robbery. Another witness remembers Thornhill, putting the Golf in a village four miles south of Drumlanrig Castle just days before the heist. Then there is the black BMW. Sightings on back roads south of the castle raise the chance of a second escape car.

As heard by us

A slow-burn art theft case built from small clues and patient police work.

A Leonardo da Vinci painting is stolen from a big Scottish castle, and the story stays close to the first scramble after the theft. A clapped-out getaway car, back roads, no traffic cameras, and a police team trying to stay ahead of the trail give it a grounded feel.

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Why you'd press play

You want the trail after a famous theft slips out through the back roads.

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