AUCTIONEERS are being asked to look out for a 19th century Russian cannon which vanished from Kelvingrove Park decades ago.

Earlier this year, an appeal was launched for information about a cannon which had pride of place in the garden of a family home in Bearsden.

Researchers decided it was one of two Russian cannons dating from 1857 which were donated to Glasgow as a memorial for the fallen soldiers of the Crimean War and placed in Kelvingrove Park.

However, it has vanished again as the house in Switchback Road has been demolished for new flats to be built.

It is understood the cannons were moved from the park in 1916 to make room for a statue of Lord Roberts but what happened to them became a mystery.

Some thought they had been melted down for the war effort but one somehow turned up in a garden in Bearsden.

The battery of guns captured during the Crimean War of 1854-56 was the first monument in Kelvingrove Park.

It featured three of the many thousands of cannons and mortars captured from the Russians.

Hundreds were taken by the British and dumped in the Royal Armoury at Woolwich where they were scheduled to be melted down.

But after protests about their fate, the government distributed them to town in Britain and around the Empire which had contributed significant donations to the war funds.

The city council is now hoping to recover the Bearsden cannon and bring it back to the city.

An insider said: "The assumption has always been the cannons were removed to aid the war effort so nobody has been looking for this one over the last 70 to 80 years. Most people thought they had been melted down.

"Nobody is suggesting whoever has it now took it from Kelvingrove however there is a pretty strong argument it belongs to the people of Glasgow as part of the Common Good. It is certainly part of the city's history.

"The problem is it has vanished again. The council has even been contacting auction houses asking to be kept informed if a cannon is offered for sale."

A council spokesman said experts from the local authority have not been able to examine the cannon.

He added: "It was removed from the address in Bearsden and we have been unable to trace the former owner of the property.

"We are keen to make contact with whoever has it now or anyone who knows where it is being kept."