ITALY RECOVERS LARGE GUERCINO PAINTING STOLEN IN 2014
Italy’s Carabinieri art crime unit has recovered the large painting by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (better known as Guercino), Madonna with the Saints John the Evangelist and Gregory the Wonderworker, 1639, that was reported stolen from a church in Modena in 2014, Hannah McGivern of the Art Newspaper reports.
Officials of the Church of San Vincenzo said that the ten-by-six-foot Baroque altarpiece was not insured and that the alarm system protecting the work was inactive because of a lack of funds. Since the church is rarely open to the public, the authorities believe the criminals responsible for the theft must have hidden in the building after a Sunday mass.
Three men were recently arrested after approaching a collector in Casablanca, Morocco, about selling the work for roughly $993,000. The collector recognized the piece and reported the incident to the police, who informed Interpol and the Comando Carabinieri Tutela Patrimonio Culturale. Culture minister Dario Franceschini said that the government is currently negotiating the return of the artwork.
