(ANSA) - Ancona, February 10 - A priceless Leonardo da Vinci painting of Renaissance patron Isabella d'Este was seized by Italian art cops in Switzerland Tuesday.

Police said it had been smuggled there. The painting, which had been lost to the art world "for centuries", was worth "hundreds of millions of euros", art police in the Marche port city of Pesaro said.

The portrait of the Duchess of Mantua, of which only a drawing had been previously known to exist, was found in the vault of a Lugano-based trust company.

