Italian police seek return of portrait attributed to Leonardo

PanARMENIAN.Net - Italian authorities have ordered the seizure from a Swiss bank vault of a portrait attributed to Leonardo da Vinci that they say was illegally removed from Italy, the Associated Press reports.

Italian financial police said Tuesday, Feb 10 that Swiss authorities had seized the portrait of a Renaissance-era noble woman, Isabella D'Este, valued at 95 million euros ($107 million).

Authorities were alerted in August 2013 that an Italian lawyer had the mandate to negotiate the sale of the painting, which was already in Switzerland without proper export licenses. The painting, however, was removed from its location, and not found until it turned up last summer during an investigation into financial crimes.

At the time, negotiations were underway to sell it for 120 million euros. Italian financial police are trying to determine the painting's true owner.