An “ultra-specialized gang” of thieves made off with more than $1.3 million worth of art from a museum in Italy, according to officials.
Knewz.com has learned that the stolen loot, including jewelry and gold statues, represented a lifetime of one artist’s work.
The perpetrators reportedly took off with all but one of the exhibits from a show dedicated to the 20th century Italian sculptor Umberto Mastroianni, from the Museo d’Annunzio Segreto at Vittoriale degli Italiani, a historic estate in northern Italy.
The president of Vittoriale, Giordano Bruno Guerri, said at a press conference that the gang “demonstrated great professionalism” to break into the museum, GardaPost.com reported, when translated from Italian to English.
“Obviously we cannot go into the details of the dynamics of the theft so as not to hinder the investigations in any way, but we can say that our alarm systems are very extensive and already of the highest level, we were evidently hit by an ultra-specialised gang,” Guerri said.
Investigators suspect the thieves studied the grounds, which is surrounded by walls, and pinpointed a vulnerable section of the barrier. At around 5:30 in the morning on Wednesday, March 6, under the cover of darkness, the group breached the compound.
The criminals apparently found a warehouse door that led to the dressing room of an amphitheater, where they took a sledgehammer to a sink to create a hole in a wall that they could climb through, according to Artnet.
They then used the sledgehammer to shatter the glass cases in the exhibit and help themselves to the Mastroianni treasures.
Museum staff arrived the next morning to find 48 pieces missing, including brooches, rings and jewels.
“What happened is an unprecedented damage to Mastroianni’s artistic legacy and damage to the Italian art of gold artifacts,” Paola Molinengo Sosta, the heir of Mastroianni’s widow, said, according to GardaPost.com.
Lorenzo Zichichi, president of the Center for Studies on the Opera of Umberto Mastroianni, said the “wearable sculptures” represent decades of the artist’s work. The only Mastroianni piece that survived the heist was “Uomo/Donna,” crafted in the early 1960s.
“Since it concerns almost the entire collection of Mastroianni’s gold, the definitive disappearance of this heritage would represent the inestimable loss of a fascinating and highly significant part of the artistic production of the Master of Fontana Liri and of the goldsmith’s art of the second half of the twentieth century,” Zichichi said.
Authorities expressed concern that the stolen works may have already been melted down for their gold.
Italy’s Carabinieri of the Command for the Protection of Cultural Property is investigating the crime, looking through surveillance footage from the estate as well as the nearby town, Gardone Riviera, according to Artnet.
The post Italian Art Heist: ‘Ultra Specialized Gang’ Steals $1.3 Million in Jewels, Gold Statues From Museum appeared first on Knewz.
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Author: Marissa Papanek
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