A 16th-century painting stolen by unknown persons in 1985 returned to the Uffizi

by Redazione , published on 11/04/2022
Categories: News / Disclaimer
After more than 30 years, a 16th-century painting, owned by the museum, that had been stolen in 1985 from the church of San Michele in Monteripaldi, there in storage since 1970, has been returned to the Uffizi Galleries.

A painting was returned to the Uffizi this morning after more than 30 years: the work, owned by the museum, had been stolen by unknown persons in January 1985 from the church of San Michele in Monteripaldi, near Florence, where it had been in storage since 1970. It is a painting by a sixteenth-century painter from the Veneto-Romagna area depicting the Holy Family with St. Catherine of Alexandria.

The official handover took place at the Uffizi Galleries in the presence of museum director Eike Schmidt and the commander of the Carabinieri TPC, Lt. Col. Giuseppe Marseglia. Also present was the commander of the Udine TPC Unit, Major Lorenzo Pella.

The painting had also been put up for sale through online channels by an auction house with offices in Milan and Rome: this was discovered by Carabinieri for the Protection of Cultural Heritage (TPC) from Udine, during their daily monitoring of the web on the hunt for stolen works. Checks conducted through consultation of the “Database of Illicitly Misappropriated Cultural Property,” the world’s largest database of stolen works of art, managed by the same TPC command, made it possible to identify the correspondence between the painting offered for sale on the Internet and the one listed in the information system.

The first to reiterate this identification, based on the images, was the head of the Civic Museums of Udine, Vania Gransinigh. The Uffizi produced the report of the external deposit in the church of San Michele in Monteripaldi and the report of theft made in 1985, and further investigations ordered by Florence Deputy Prosecutor Christine von Borries definitively confirmed the correspondence between the work for sale and the one stolen in Monteripaldi.

A 16th-century painting stolen by unknown persons in 1985 returned to the Uffizi
A 16th-century painting stolen by unknown persons in 1985 returned to the Uffizi


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