Seattle ? A 15th century painting that turned up in a church storage closet 50 years ago was escorted back to St. James Cathedral on Sunday with song and pageantry after being carefully restored.

A parade of children, choirs, bagpipes and banners accompanied the painting by Italian artist Neri diBicci from a downtown civic center to the cathedral, where it was blessed in front of a crowd that included a small delegation from Italy.

The painting, titled “Virgin and Child with Six Saints,” had been at the Seattle Art Museum for the past two years, where it underwent restoration, then was featured in an exhibit of Renaissance devotional art.

But just how the painting ended up at the Seattle cathedral is still a mystery.

“We know where it was 500 years ago,” church administrator Larry Brouse said. “Between now and then? No.”

The 4-by-5-foot painting was believed to have been a gift to St. James in the 1930s or ’40s. It was discovered in a storage room during a 1950s renovation of the church. It then hung in the chapel until the early 1990s, when Seattle conservator Elizabeth Darrow recognized its historic significance.

In 1992, the painting was removed from the chapel for cleaning and research after a fire elsewhere in the building. The work was taken for restoration after a diBicci expert from Florence, who transcribed and published the artist’s 600-year-old diary, confirmed the painting’s authenticity.

Checks with Interpol and the Art-Loss Registry turned up no reports that it had been stolen or lost, Brouse said.

Virgin

In the heavily gilded painting, the Virgin is seated with her baby in her lap. She is flanked by six saints, each of whom is accompanied by a symbol to recall his history. For instance, St. Bartholomew, who was flayed, carries a knife, and St. Lawrence, who was roasted alive, carries a metal grill.

The painting is on four inch-thick poplar planks. Before the restoration, woodworm damage was visible around the unpainted edges where the original frame was attached, and had undermined small areas in the body of the work. At one point, the top plank broke off and the repair job left a visible scar through the faces of the saints.

The painting’s vivid colors and gold leaf also had been darkened by time and the church fire.

Museum conservator Nick Dorman, who restored the painting with his staff, said he believed the work was produced in the mid-1400s in a Florence studio run by diBicci, who also wrote an art history that helped confirm its origins.