A PAINTING that has hung in a Lunesdale church for more than 200 years has had to be locked away after it was revealed as a Renaissance treasure worth at least £100,000.

The picture - depicting Christ and his mother after the Crucifixion - was found to have been painted by an Italian Old Master after an exhaustive investigation by the team from the hit BBC programme Fake or Fortune.

At the climax of Sunday night's edition, shown on BBC1, the identity of the 'second division' Florence artist was confirmed by experts as Francesco Montemezzano – a contemporary of some of the Italian greats such as Tinteretto and Titian.

But after the broadcast, officials at the church - St John's in Tunstall near Kirkby Lonsdale - said they were left with 'no alternative' but to take the painting down when social media exchanges led them to fear it could be stolen.

Churchwarden Jane Greenhalgh, who appeared in the programme along with vicar Mark Cannon, told the Gazette: "The painting has been taken down for security reasons and will be kept in storage. At the moment I have no idea what we are going to do with it."

As well as uncovering the painting's provenance, the programme - presented by Fiona Bruce and art expert Philip Mould - investigated how it came to be brought to Tunstall, leading to the conclusion it was originally bought by art lover Frederick Needham, who had a family connection to nearby Thurland Castle and was vicar of St John’s in the early 1800s.

At the start of the show the painting was shown hanging in the church in its un-cleaned condition. By the end it had been fully revived, with rich colours revealed.

In between those two points the investigation took the presenters to Cambridge, London and Venice to get the answers they needed.

Ms Bruce said: “The painting was filthy and dark but very early on Philip thought it was Venetian because of the style and colours particularly. But now you can see it has jewel-like, enamel-like colours."

Mr Mould said: “It was an extraordinary transformation and on a scale that is pretty well unmatched. It was a religious experience watching it being cleaned."

Mrs Greenhalgh, who described the presenters as 'lovely people to work with', said: “I was not too concerned about value, more about what the painting was; it was so incredibly dirty it was hard to see.”

The Rev Mark Cannon, added: “We were hopeful of discovering something about its history, how it got here and why it’s in the church.

“We’ve been down some blind alleys but in the end what was neglected by us all at the back of the church has turned out to be something quite special.”