Imperia: Carabinieri recover 70 stolen church goods

In Imperia, carabinieri from the Operational Department for Cultural Heritage Protection(TPC) recovered 70 ecclesiastical goods, among which stand out in importance a relic of St. Justin, patron saint of Paganica(AQ), stolen in May 1992, from the local parish Santa Maria Assunta and a valuable 19th-century painting, stolen in 2000 from the Basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio in L’Aquila.

The investigative activity began in 2015, when in the course of the usual monitoring of the Italian and foreign antiquities market, a suspicious sale transaction, by a well-known auction house in Paris, related to a valuable relic of St. Justin was being watched. The following checks, through comparison of the image with those contained in the Data Bank of Illicitly Stolen Cultural Assets, managed by this Command, made it possible to ascertain that the asset corresponded precisely to the one removed from the L’Aquila church. Subsequent investigations, coordinated by the L’Aquila Public Prosecutor’s Office, allowed the important relic to be repatriated in December 2016 and returned to the L’Aquila parish.
The continuation of the investigations, through the analysis of documentation acquired during activities carried out outside the national borders and the various searches carried out, including one against an antiques dealer from Monte Carlo, made it possible to ascertain that the asset had been sold by a Brescian sector dealer, who in turn had purchased it from a local prelate and one of his collaborators, who had previously exercised their functions in Abruzzo as well. In checking the parishes at which the cleric had ministered, TPC soldiers verified that some had been affected by art thefts.

As a result of the search delegated by theJudicial Authority, in Imperia, at the clergyman’s residence, as well as at a residence for the elderly in that province, of which he appeared to be president of the Board of Trustees, many church goods were identified and 30 objects from the 18th to 19th cent, as they were found to have been removed from the Church of Borghetto D’Arroscia and from some parishes in the province of Imperia, as well as the painting depicting “St. Peter Celestine with papal attributes,” stolen from the Basilica of Collemaggio in L’Aquila, which disappeared in the 2000s, shortly after its restoration by the local Superintendency.

Further investigative developments, then coordinated by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Imperia, which had acquired territorial jurisdiction, made it possible to obtain new elements about the illicit nature of several assets in the parish priest’s possession. A subsequent search, carried out in collaboration with the Carabinieri Station of Pieve di Teco, led to the seizure of another 40 assets dating from the 18th to 19th centuries, all of illicit provenance, including an 18th-century reliquary removed in 2012 from the church in Comunanza(AP), as well as a late 18th-century shrine, stolen in 2012, from the church of San Terenziano located in Gorro - Borgo Val di Taro(PR).

Pictured is the painting dating back to the 19th century that was found

Imperia: Carabinieri recover 70 stolen church goods

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