The valuable painting features two lovers in a clinch

The Last Great Romantic, featuring two lovers in a clinch, was taken from a home in Oxted, Surrey, on 9 February, police have confirmed.

The burglars took the artwork in a day-time raid and made their escape in a Volvo car.

Art experts refused to put a price on the work but said a Vettriano work had sold for �60,000 last week.

Officers investigating the crime have urged people in the art trade to be on the look-out for the painting.

Mr Vettriano, from Fife, is a self-taught artist and best known for his work The Singing Butler, which sold at auction last year for nearly �750,000.

Born Jack Hoggan in Methil, 1951, he started his working life as a mining engineer at the age of 16.

His distinctive paintings are among the most widely sold artworks on prints, postcards and posters in the UK and he is thought to earn �250,000 a year in royalties for The Singing Butler alone.

He received his OBE for services to the visual arts in 2003.