17 PAINTINGS STOLEN IN VERONA MUSEUM HEIST RECOVERED IN UKRAINE
Italy’s minister of culture, Dario Franceschini, has confirmed that the seventeen paintings stolen from Verona’s Museo di Castelvecchio last November have been recovered by police in the Ukraine.
According to the Art Newspaper, the paintings, which include works by Baroque and Renaissance masters such as Peter Paul Rubens and Jacopo Tintoretto, were found wrapped in plastic bags and hidden in shrubbery along the Dniester river on Turunchuk island, which is near the southwestern border of Moldova. Authorities suspect the thieves planned to sell the canvases in the Ukraine or Russia. Ukrainian President Petro Porochenko said that the recovery of the paintings was a sign to the world that “Ukraine is starting to effectively combat smuggling.”
The mayor of Verona, Flavio Tosi said, “We are breathing an enormous sigh of relief and we are very happy because it is an important piece of Verona that is to be returned to the citizens of the city and the whole world.”
The works were stolen from the museum by masked robbers on November 19, as previsouly reported by artforum.com. In March, thirteen arrests were made including eleven Moldovans and two Italians, one of which was a security guard at the institution. Valued at around $16 million, the works will soon be returned to Italy.
