French city believes Madonna may own artwork lost in war – and asks for loan

Amiens mayor wants singer to lend Jérôme-Martin Langlois painting after it went missing in first world war

What do the singer Madonna and Amiens in northern France have in common? Not a lot, says the city’s mayor, Brigitte Fouré, who admits the global star has probably never heard of the city until now.

However, Fouré insists there is a “special link” between the two in the shape of an early 19th-century painting that once hung in the Amiens museum until it was lost without trace during the first world war.