Parma, 56 ancient coins returned to the Pilotta. They had been stolen between 2006 and 2009

This morning, the Command of the Carabinieri Unit for the Protection of Cultural Heritage in Bologna returned to the Monumental Complex of the Pilotta in Parma as many as 56 coins of considerable value and rarity, belonging to the Medagliere of the Archaeological Museum of the Pilotta. The ceremony was held in the presence of the Prosecutor at the Court of Parma, the Mayor of the City of Parma, the Provincial Commander Carabinieri of Parma, the Commander of the Carabinieri TPC Group of Monza, and the Superintendent of Archaeology Fine Arts and Landscape for the Provinces of Parma and Piacenza.

The thorough investigation was developed by the Carabinieri of the Bologna Nucleo TPC starting in August 2016 after becoming aware, in the course of autonomous investigations into the channels of illicit commercialization of cultural goods and the usual activity of control of digital platforms, of the sale by a Casa d’Auction House in San Marino of a precious gold coin, to be exact a Fiorino, issued by the Republic of Florence (12th-15th century), Florence Mint 1284, from the theft of 386 ancient coins, carried out by unknown malefactors inside the National Archaeological Museum of Parma from 2006 until July 3, 2009, the date of the complaint submitted to the Carabinieri of the Investigative Unit of the Parma Provincial Command. Just from the preliminary investigations conducted, the Carabinieri could detect that the photo of the cultural asset offered for sale matched the one stolen before 2009 from the National Archaeological Museum of Parma. Thus, the gold Fiorino, identified in the Auction House catalog and found to have been sold in 2013 to an unsuspecting Milanese collector, was promptly seized as early as October 2016.

A few days later, a first house search allowed TPC Carabinieri to seize from the person who had already put the first coin into circulation, another valuable gold specimen, precisely a Quadruple, issued by Ottavio Farnese, Duke of Parma and Piacenza (1547-1586), Piacenza Mint.

The certain identification of the coins was obtained thanks to the expertise of an archaeological officer of the Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio for the Provinces of Parma and Piacenza and of an Honorary Inspector of the same Soprintendenza, a numismatic expert, who could attest how each coin presented such morphological characteristics as to make it unique in order to identify it unequivocally: the weight, the coinage, the shape of the round, the crushings, the jumps of coinage present on both sides, and the production defects. Thus, the comparison comparisons made by experts between the images of the already catalogued goods in the 1970s/1980s with the crisp images of the recovered goods turned out to be crucial.

Since December 2017, therefore, an articulated and complex investigation activity was being developed, coordinated and directed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Parma, which is still being carried out by the Bologna TPC Nucleus and the Foreign Section of the Rome TPC Command with the contribution of Interpol, Europol and ICE (United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement) for the investigations in the United States of America.

In fact, as a result of meticulous research work on online sales, completed with the indispensable assistance of the numismatic experts mentioned above, an additional 200 or so coins stolen from the National Archaeological Museum of Parma, already auctioned or soon to be sold, from the date of detection, were identified on e-commerce platforms, precisely in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Belgium, Monaco, the United Kingdom, the Republic of San Marino, Sweden, Norway and the USA. In March 2018, these findings, supported by the necessary in-depth investigations, made it possible to obtain from the Judge for Preliminary Investigations of the Court of Parma, on the compliant request of the Prosecutor in charge of the investigation, the issuance of the preventive seizure decree of all the coins traced, to be executed in Italy and abroad.

Numerous were the Rogatoria or European Investigation Orders issued by the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Parma, sent for execution to foreign Judicial Authorities, also with the involvement of Eurojust (European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation), to obtain the seizure and return to the Italian State of the coins identified for sale or already sold in the foreign states concerned.

Last but not least, in some cases, it was possible to obtain the return of the goods through the involvement of national diplomatic channels through the expertise of the relevant offices of the Italian Ministry of Culture.

In addition to the 56 coins already recovered, several foreign requests are still pending to obtain the return of coins previously recognized as being for sale outside national borders. Specifically, 95 coins were being identified in Switzerland between May 2018 and April 2019, all of which had already been seized before the auctions were completed. Requests for judicial assistance promptly submitted by both the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Parma and the Judge for Preliminary Investigations at the same court are ongoing. The 95 gold, silver and bronze coins, most of them of ancient age belonging to the historical medal collection formed between the second half of the eighteenth century and the end of the nineteenth century, in fact, all of particular importance, value and rarity, had been recognized during a technical examination carried out at the offices of the Zurich Public Prosecutor’s Office in late October 2020 by the expert archaeological officer of the Parma Superintendency and the Carabinieri of the Bologna TPC Unit.

The group of 56 coins being returned constitutes only a fraction of the coins so far identified and recovered throughout Europe and even outside it (particularly in the United States). Within this group, two cores of coins can be distinguished.

The first core of 20 coins includes gold and silver specimens from the ancient, medieval and modern periods belonging to the oldest collection in the medal collection. These are, for the most part, coins of great rarity and high preservation.

This is the case, for example, with the denarius of Quintus Pomponius Musa (No. 36 on the list), active in the 1st century BC. The coin in the Museum of Parma is of great rarity.

Also of great interest and rarity is the tremisse of Emperor Glycerius (473-474 AD) (no. 20 on the list). Glycerius, the third-to-last Roman emperor of the West, was in office for about a year before being deposed, and his coins are all extremely rare today. In this case we are dealing with a small gold coin weighing just over one gram, excellently preserved.

Of the denari antiquiores stolen from the Parma Museum so far, 3 have been identified and recovered (nos. 15, 16 and 17 in the list). The denari antiquiores are coins of great historical interest: they are silver coins minted by Roman pontiffs beginning with Pope Hadrian I (772-795) until around 1000. They almost always bear the name or monogram of the pontiff together with that of the reigning emperor at the time of their issue. They are generally quite rare coins. Those of Parma found on the antiquarian market belong to the series of Pope Nicholas I (858-867), Pope Stephen VI, (896-897) and Pope Roman I (897).

Of particular value and rarity is then the double ducat of Alfonso I d’Este (1505-1534) (No. 13 in the list). This is a coin known in very few examples.

Another coin of great value, especially from a historical point of view, is the quadruple (coin worth four scudi) of Ottavio Farnese, second duke of Parma and Piacenza (1547-1586). The ducatone of Ranuccio II Farnese (1646-1694) is a piece of great preservation and exceptional beauty. It is a silver coin weighing about 32 grams.

The second group of 36 recovered specimens, on the other hand, belongs to a nucleus of coins from a unified archaeological context, that is, from one of the most important archaeological discoveries in Parma in the last century, the so-called “Treasure of Via Mazzini.”

At the time of its discovery (in 1962 during construction work conducted precisely in Via Mazzini), the hoard turned out to consist of 261 coins. The coins had definitely been hoarded, in other words they were intentionally concealed by its former owner, probably with the hope of future recovery.

That of hoarding is a recurring phenomenon in all ages, especially during periods of socio-political instability. The hiding of the treasure in Via Mazzini is between 395 and 402 A.D., that is, during the period when Alaric’s Visigoths entered Italy (the Visigoths’ sack of Rome was in 410 A.D.).

The coins in the hoard are largely “fior di conio” (showing no signs of circulation and retaining their original luster and integrity).

Between 2006 and 2009, 213 of the 261 coins in the hoard were stolen from the drawers of the Parma Medagliere’s cabinets. Only 48 pieces were saved, at the time stored in the numismatic cabinet’s display cases.

At the partial conclusion of the investigations, the Judge for Preliminary Investigations of the Court of Parma, upon a compliant request made by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the same Court, ordered the confiscation and return of the precious coins to the Complesso Monumentale della Pilotta di Parma, the owner of the goods, thus allowing them to be returned to the Parma community and thus to the entire community.

Parma, 56 ancient coins returned to the Pilotta. They had been stolen between 2006 and 2009

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