Titian's Rest On The Flight Into Egypt painting to be auctioned

Rest On The Flight Into Egypt was painted by Venetian artist, Titian, in the 16th century

A painting of Mary cradling baby Jesus is set to be auctioned.

Titian's Rest On The Flight Into Egypt, is kept in Longleat House, Wiltshire, by its current owner, Lord Bath.

The 16th-century artwork went missing for seven years after it was stolen from the stately home, until it was found in London in a plastic carrier bag in 2002.

Auctioneer Christie's said the painting is expected to fetch between £15m and £25m at the sale on 2 July.

The painting depicts Joseph, Mary and Jesus stopping to rest while travelling.

It has had many owners over the years, including Austrian emperor Joseph II, before being hung at the Belvedere Palace in Vienna.

French troops looted the painting in 1809 for the Napoleon Museum, which was assembled by the Bonaparte family.

Christie's said the painting was then owned by Scottish landowner, Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro, before being bought in 1878 by the fourth Marquess of Bath at auction.

'One of the greatest'

Andrew Fletcher, Christie's global head of the Old Masters department, said: "This is the most important work by Titian to come to the auction market in more than a generation and one of the very few masterpieces by the artist remaining in private hands.

"It is a picture that embodies the revolution in painting made by Titian at the start of the 16th century and is a truly outstanding example of the artist's pioneering approach to both the use of colour and the representation of the human form in the natural world, the artistic vocabulary that secured his status as the first Venetian painter to achieve fame throughout Europe in his lifetime, and his position as one of the greatest painters in the history of Western art."