Paintings stolen from Genoa also seized in Puglia
The paintings found and seized in Puglia by the financiers of Bitonto and by the carabinieri of the cultural heritage protection nucleus of Bari also belonged to private individuals from Genoa.
Archaeological finds, statues, paintings, ecclesiastical, archival and book goods, this is the “booty” found after the death of a wealthy collector from the province of Bari: the seized collection consists of 350 ceramic archaeological finds, in terracotta and bronze, of Apulian production dating back to the III-IV century BC, 80 finds in terracotta, glass, metal and ivory, coming from the eastern Mediterranean and dating back to the second millennium BC, various manuscripts, numerous authentic relics dating back to the nineteenth century, an ancient volume of the 1682 entitled “Costitutiones synodal bituntinae ecclesiae”, paintings and sculptures.
Among the works found, a wooden statue of 1300 depicting the “Madonna enthroned with child”, a medieval masterpiece by an unknown artist, stolen in 1977 from the church of Sant’Egidio Abate di Cerqueto (fraction of Fano Adriano in the province of Teramo), recognized thanks to a photo present in the database of illegally stolen cultural assets. To confirm that it was the stolen statue, there is also an appraisal carried out by the archeology, fine arts and landscape superintendency for the metropolitan city of Bari. It was precisely the delivery of the statue – as the last will of the collector – by the heirs to the guard of finance of Bitonto to dare to launch the investigations that allowed the discovery of the entire collection.
The military has ascertained the illicit provenance of the seized assets and identified the legitimate owners, including several private individuals for the paintings (stolen in Rome, Genoa and Bologna), the church and the respective dioceses for ecclesiastical assets and the State for the archaeological finds. The use of the database managed and fed by the Carabinieri cultural heritage protection command is decisive in which it is possible to find descriptive and photographic information relating to the cultural heritage to be searched.