Milan, rare painting by Marco d'Oggiono stolen 70 years ago returns to Pinacoteca Ambrosiana

Starting today, Sept. 15, 2021, the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan will rediscover one of its masterpieces, a rare Madonna and Child by Leonardo’s Marco d’Ogg iono (Oggiono, c. 1470 - Milan, c. 1530), an oil on panel stolen from the museum in the 1950s, recovered and returned thanks to the intervention of the Carabinieri of the Nucleo per la Tutela del Patrimonio Culturale of Monza. The work, after a conservative restoration, will soon return to the Milanese museum.

The investigation was launched in March 2021, when a Milanese art dealer had approached the special Brianza unit to ascertain its lawful provenance. Armed forces immediately proceeded to ascertain the presence of the painting in the Database of Illicitly Misappropriated Cultural Property, the largest database of stolen works of art in the world. The positive match made it possible to verify that the painting was indeed the one stolen from the Pinacoteca della Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana. Subsequent checks revealed that the work came from a testamentary bequest by a Milanese lady in favor of a nephew who had decided to put it up for sale on the market.

The investigative result is also the result of the collaboration conducted for several years between the Italian Bishops’ Conference and the Ministry of Culture on the protection of ecclesiastical cultural heritage, a synergy that also characterizes the work of the Superintendencies, the diocesan Offices for Cultural Heritage and the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, at the central level and with its territorial articulations. This relationship is the basis for the request, made in 2014 by the Secretary General of the CEI to the Minister of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism, Dario Franceschini, and to the Commander General of the Arma, to transfer the internationally recognized experience and expertise to the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, in a publication containing guidelines on the protection of ecclesiastical cultural heritage referring to the specific Italian situation. In addition to offering practical advice for the protection of ecclesiastical cultural property that is a target of predatory crime in the sector, the publication is an opportunity to publicize the inventorying and census initiatives that dioceses are conducting in favor of ecclesiastical cultural heritage.

Milan, rare painting by Marco d'Oggiono stolen 70 years ago returns to Pinacoteca Ambrosiana

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