Bologna, Carabinieri return to Certosa four marble pilasters stolen in 1992

Yesterday morning at the Certosa di Bologna, four 1870 white Carrara marble pilasters , which had been stolen in 1992 from the Micheli Chapel in the Certosa Monumental Cemetery , were redelivered by the commander of the Carabinieri Nucleo per la Tutela del Patrimonio Culturale (TPC) of Bologna, Lieutenant Colonel Giuseppe De Gori, to the Mayor’s Delegate for Culture of Bologna and the Metropolitan City, Dr. Elena Di Gioia. The redelivery ceremony was held in the presence of the Regional Director of Museums of Emilia Romagna, Giorgio Cozzolino, the President of Bologna Servizi Cimiteriali, Simone Spataro, and the Project Coordinator for the enhancement of the Certosa, Museo civico del Risorgimento - Settore Musei Civici Bologna, Roberto Martorelli.

The four large white marble pilasters, measuring 292x30x5 cm, had been identified by the Bologna TPC Unit in 2010 following a complex and thorough investigation activity, developed by the Carabinieri of the Nucleo Tutela Patrimonio Culturale after ascertaining, in the course of regular control and monitoring activities of goods sold on e-commerce platforms in Italy and abroad, the sale, at a well-known German auction house, of the four marble pilasters of probable Bologna origin.

Images of the four marble pilasters were included in the database of illicitly stolen cultural goods managed by the TPC Command: it was therefore quite easy for the carabinieri to detect that the photos of the art goods offered for sale on the German market were similar to those of the four marble pilasters stolen on October 1, 1992, from the Micheli Chapel, built in 1873 at the behest of Gaetano Micheli, who turned to the Bolognese marble-working firm Davide Venturi & Figlio for its construction

For the positive outcome of the affair, the subsequent investigations conducted by the Carabinieri TPC with the fundamental collaboration of the officials of the Civic Museum of the Risorgimento in Bologna, in particular the referents in charge of the enhancement of the artistic-cultural heritage of the Certosa, proved important. In fact, precisely through the consultation of the digital photographic catalog of the Certosa, it was possible to view the photograph of the Micheli Chapel, compare it with that of the goods offered for sale, and further ascertain the actual correspondence of the latter with those stolen in Bologna more than twenty years ago.

The subsequent and prolonged investigations were thus coordinated first by the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Bologna and later by the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Rome (Artistic Heritage Protection Group), which immediately activated the planned channels of judicial cooperation with Germany in order to prevent the dispersion of the marble goods, arrive at the identification of the perpetrators of the fencing and, in particular, allow the illegally exported goods to be repatriated to the national territory. Therefore, the investigation activity developed between the German and Italian judicial authorities, through specific investigations conducted both in Italy and abroad to trace the sellers or owners of the stolen goods offered for sale, but above all to ascertain, with absolute certainty, the provenance of the goods from the Certosa Cemetery in Bologna, was fundamental.

As a result, having ascertained that on the occasion of the theft, the detachment from the masonry walls of one of the four pilasters had resulted in the breaking of a small corner of marble that the criminals were unable to detach from the wall, the carabinieri of the Bologna TPC, accompanied by the liaison officer of the Bologna municipality, went on a mission to Munich in June 2018. In Germany, in the presence of officers of the German Police, who had carried out the seizure, they could perform the recognition of the assets without a shadow of a doubt. Crucially, it turned out that the cast of the marble fragment that remained attached on the wall of the Micheli Chapel perfectly matched the missing corner to the marble slab removed and offered for sale.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Rome, at the conclusion of the investigation, obtaining from the Judge for Preliminary Investigations of the same Court the confiscation of the four marble goods of relevant historical-artistic interest, ordered their repatriation from Germany and thus their return to the city of Bologna to be relocated to their place of origin.

In the coming months, the Civic Museum of the Risorgimento of the Bologna Civic Museums Sector together with the Certosa Art Commission and Bologna Cemetery Services will evaluate what is the best possible solution for the final recovery and enhancement of the marbles, involving the Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio for the metropolitan city of Bologna and the provinces of Modena, Reggio Emilia and Ferrara. The complex recovery of the four pilasters will allow the visual integrity of the sacellum to be restored in the coming years.

Bologna, Carabinieri return to Certosa four marble pilasters stolen in 1992

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