A Renaissance masterpiece hanging in the National Gallery may have been looted by the Nazis.

The painting was taken from Berchtesgaden, Hitler's Alpine residence, at the end of the war by a female war reporter who was offered it as a gift by the US commanding officer.

It is now thought the masterpiece Cupid Complaining To Venus by Lucas Cranach the Elder may have been bought by a Jewish family but seized by the Nazis during the war.

The National Gallery bought the painting in New York in 1963 for £34,000 but has now added it to its list of works with "incomplete provenance" and is appealing for information about who the rightful owners might be.

They or their descendants could make a compensation claim for the loss of the painting or demand it back.

Gallery director Charles Saumarez Smith told the Daily Telegraph: "As soon as we knew that the story behind the Cranach was in some way different from what we had been led to believe, we made it known."

The painting was presented to Patricia Lochridge Hartwell, then 29 and a correspondent for Women's Home Companion magazine.

She was given control of Berchtesgaden for a day as a stunt, writing an article about her control of stolen art stored there by the Nazis. As a reward Ms Hartwell, who died in Hawaii in 1998, was offered any painting - and chose the Cranach.