That history includes the catastrophic 1908 Messina earthquake, which destroyed much of the city and devastated the former monastery of San Gregorio.  The surviving panels of this altarpiece were among the many works exposed to the consequences of that disaster and subsequently underwent repeated conservation treatment.  Their survival in Messina is therefore significant not simply because of Antonello’s importance to Renaissance painting, but because they form part of a cultural patrimony that has already survived extraordinary physical loss.

By Lynda Albertson

The recovery was announced today by the Carabinieri of the Parma Provincial Command and the specialist unit of the Comando Carabinieri per la Tutela del Patrimonio Culturale (TPC).  According to authorities, the paintings were located during searches ordered by the Parma Public Prosecutor's Office following what police have described as a complex investigation.  Initially, details were not released concerning precisely where the works were found, in whose possession they were recovered, or whether arrests have been made as the investigative remains active.

The recovered works are:

Pierre-Auguste Renoir's Les Poissons, 1917

Medium:  Oil on Canvas

40 x 51.5 cm

Three minutes inside the Villa dei Capolavori

Shortly after 2:00 am, on Monday, 23 March 2026, at least four masked accomplices entered the grounds of the Fondazione Magnani Rocca in Mamiano di Traversetolo, approximately 20 kilometres south of Parma, having tampered with barrier rods which were part of a metal gate located along the periphery of the museum's manicured 12-hectare English-style garden near the North and East of the car park.  From there it was a straight walk up the museum's pebbled path to reach the rear of Villa Magnani, also known as Villa dei Capolavori or "Villa of Masterpieces" where they broke in through an entrance door.

The museum occupies the former home of musicologist, critic, and collector Luigi Magnani, whose collection also includes works by Titian, Dürer, Rubens, Van Dyck, Goya, Monet, Morandi, and other major European artists. The three stolen works were displayed together on the upper floor of the villa in the Sala Cézanne, which housed one oil and five watercolours, completed by the artist, and the Sala Impressionisti, which contains works by French masters who are quite rare in permanent Italian museum collections.  

Initial reports described only that masked thieves forcing their way into the building. A fuller reconstruction that has emerged from the investigation, including surveillance footage released following the recovery, reveals an exceptionally rapid operation.

The video released by the Carabinieri shows two masked individuals, equipped with head torches, entering the villa through one of its windows.  A third accomplice can be seen outside, as he is handed the paintings as they are removed.  Investigators believe that at least four people participated in the actual theft operation who were helped by others after the initial theft. Once inside the villa, the thieves moved directly towards the works they intended to take, detaching them from the walls and carrying them back downstairs where they passed them to their waiting accomplice. 

The entire operation took less than three minutes.

Investigators also examined a tractor which had been stolen nearby and subsequently found close to the villa which may have been used to force access through the perimeter gate.

In making their escape, the thieves abandoned a forth artwork, by Renoir belonging to the Magnani collection, titled Paysage de Cagnes. This painting subsequently became particularly important to investigators, who subjected material associated with the attempted removal to forensic examination for fingerprints and biological traces.

The activation of the museum's security systems appears to have shortened the time available to the intruders. The Foundation subsequently stated that the thieves had been prevented from completing their intended actions through the operation of the alarm system and the rapid intervention of internal security personnel, the Carabinieri, and the private security service.

The theft also illustrates an enduring problem in museum thefts: the difference between the theoretical market value of a famous work and the value of a well-documented work of art within an illicit transaction.

A high value Cézanne or Renoir cannot simply be introduced into the legitimate international art market following a widely publicised museum theft. Their images, titles, dimensions, and ownership are readily identifiable, and any attempt to sell them publicly through an established auction house or reputable dealer would immediately raise questions.

That does not however make such works valueless to criminals.

Stolen art can move through a variety of illicit contexts. Works may be concealed for years, transferred between criminal actors at a fraction of their legitimate value, used as collateral in other illicit transactions, or held in anticipation that circumstances may eventually make disposal possible. In other cases, thieves simply discover after the event that stealing a famous painting is considerably easier than converting it into money.

For investigators, the months immediately following a theft can therefore be especially important. Each movement of an object potentially expands the circle of people who know where it is, who has handled it, and who may be prepared to negotiate over it.

Precisely what happened to the Magnani Rocca paintings between March and August was not disclosed this morning, as press releases confirmed only that the paintings had been recovered during a series of prosecutor-authorised searches.

Who planned the burglary? Who selected the objects? Was the theft commissioned, or were the paintings stolen in the expectation that a buyer could subsequently be found? Who concealed them after the theft? Were intermediaries involved? And was an attempt made to monetise them before their recovery, all remain unanswered.

Update:

Satisfied with today's recovery, Lieutenant Colonel Marseglia said this was the most important museum theft recovery in Italy since the 2016 recovery of 17 paintings, including works by Peter Paul Rubens, Pisanello, Caroto, Tintoretto and Mantegna, stolen from Verona's Castelvecchio Museum. 

Thankfully, in this instance, the investigating officers were able to carry out their recovery before the artworks could be smuggled out of the country. 

By:  Lynda Albertson

Following a two-year investigation, culminating in a coordinated effort between Spain’s Guardia Civil and Italy’s Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, 62 valuable cultural assets were repatriated to Spain today under the banner of Operation Altarpiece in a ceremony held at the “Swiss Guards Hall” of the Royal Palace in Turin.  The investigation was directed by Investigating Court No. 1 of Marbella, which worked closely with Eurojust to coordinate international legal cooperation. 

The case began in June 2023 when the Guardia Civil received intelligence via Europol’s Secure Information Exchange Network Application (SIENA), alerting them to the seizure in Italy of a carved polychrome and gilded wood altarpiece, with scenes of the Passion of Christ from the 16th century.  This religious work of art had been illegally exported from Andalusia five years after Spanish authorities had denied its earlier export request, made by the now-deceased German couple who had been residing in Marbella (Málaga).

Under Spanish law, cultural properties of this nature—i.e., artworks over 100 years old, included in the General Inventory of Movable Property of Historical Heritage, or valued above specific monetary thresholds (ranging from €15,000 for drawings, engravings, and photographs to €150,000 for paintings)—require a definitive or temporary export permit.  The seized altarpiece in question lacked any of these necessary authorisations.

As the investigation expanded, authorities focused on tracing how this altarpiece had been removed from Spain and transported into Italy and whether the object's holders had trafficked any additional artworks out of the country.  During their subsequent investigation, officers determined that over 90 cultural objects had been exported from Marbella using a non-specialised transport company which moved Renaissance panel paintings, some configured as triptychs, sculptures, vases, tapestries, French 17th and 18th century furniture, and works attributed to artists such as Amedeo Modigliani, Auguste Rodin, and Pieter Brueghel, (the younger).

Italian investigators located many of these works in the villa of Günter Hans Ludwig Kiss, on the shores of Lake Maggiore in Lesa, the same home where the altarpiece had been recovered.  Other works were traced to art galleries, as well as private residences, in Genoa and Milan.   Still others had been sold onward and re-exported from Italy to a third country.  Kiss, the controversial German garbage magnate, was once listed in the top 300 list of rich businessmen in Switzerland, and died, at the age of 81, on 04 February 2023, a few weeks after his wife's own death.  

While alive, the German entrepreneur was involved in numerous legal cases: both civil and criminal for his waste management activities. In the 1990s, he was placed trial for environmental crimes committed with the commissioning of a Thermoselect plant.  Having sold their properties in Switzerland and Spain, and without heirs, the Kiss assets, contested by creditors, were slated to go to the Kan Foundation, a non-profit organisation only established in the tax haven of Liechtenstein in 2023.

As a result of thier line of inquiry, the Spanish court issued multiple European Investigation Orders to judicial authorities in Italy and Germany, along with an International Letter of Request to the United Kingdom, seeking the restitution of the works located in each of the aforementioned jurisdictions.

On Thursday, 16 December 2021, at least two of the seized paintings on view during today's restitution ceremony had been consigned for sale to Cambi Casa d'Aste for an Old Masters sale held at Castello Mackenzie in Genova (Italy).  The first being this early 16th century painting, representing the Madonna and Child with Saint Anne believed to have been painted by members of the Antwerp School, the painting is estimated to be worth between €30,000 to €50,000. 

and this 16th century, 'Triptych depicting the Holy Family and angels' also from the Antwerp School values at between €20,000 and €30,000.

Given that no provenance details accompanied either advertisement for this auction,  one also needs to look closely, not only at the business mogul Günter Hans Ludwig Kiss, but at the origins of these Antwerp School works in relation to World War II-era claims. 

No rules followed, too few questions asked

This restitution case underscores the importance of applying for, and legally obtaining, export permits for cultural property when transferring art works from one country to another.  Legal requirements such as these are designed to prevent the illicit removal of historically or culturally significant objects, and allows national cultural authorities to assess each item’s provenance and artistic importance to the nation prior to authorising removal. 

The investigation also highlights the lack of consistent due diligence on the part of some art market resellers in verifying the legal status of artworks before accepting them for purchase or agreeing to take them under consignment. 

Due diligence is not simply best practice—it is essential for safeguarding a nation’s heritage and ensuring transparency and accountability within the international art trade.  Institutions and private dealers should be prepared to ask potential sellers and consignors tough questions, and to require proof of proper documentation, including export permits when required, in order to prevent inadvertently facilitating the sale of illicit cultural property.  

Failure to do so, or intentionally turning a blind eye, exposes collectors, art dealers, and auction houses to reputational damage and undermines collective efforts to protect cultural heritage from being lost to illicit markets.

By:  Lynda Albertson

Image Credit: Safani Gallery TEFAF Maastricht advertisement

In terms of its history, DANY's court documents set out that the head was discovered during excavations of the Basilica Aemilia, located on the Via Sacra.  This is the ancient road between the Capitoline Hill and the Colosseum located within the Roman Forum in Rome. While little remains of the Basilica Aemilia today, it was considered by Rome historian Pliny the Elder to be one of the three most beautiful elements of the Roman Forum, this alongside the Forum of Augustus and the Temple of Peace. 

Looking across the remains of the Basilica Aemilia towards the Severan Arch, the Tabularium, and the Modern Senate House Image Credit: B. Dolan

The head was discovered at some point during Italian research excavations carried out by Drs. Professors Giacomo Boni and later by Professor Alfonso Bartoli which were carried out on the Palatine Hill between 1899 and 1939.  Documentation from the excavations suggest that the head belongs to one of the “Statues of Parthian Barbarians” which once adorned the Basilica.

After 20 BCE Roman art often portrayed the people of the Empire and during its restoration in 14 BCE, Augustus chose to line the Basilica with a series of Parthian figurines, perhaps in humiliation of Rome's ancient foreign enemy.  Representing individuals from the Parthian Empire (also known as the Arsacid Empire), these likenesses depicted the conquered Parthians as representatives of the Orbis Alter, subjects of Rome which were not considered to be part of the “civilised” world.  Stylistically, they differ from representations we have from the same period of people from the Orbis Romanus. 

According to court documents, the Italian Soprintendenza alle Antichità Palatino e Foro Romano began keeping archival photographic documentation of the objects discovered during the lengthy excavation starting in 1908.  Based on these records, the head of Alexander the Great, seized from the New York gallery, is believed to have been discovered during the second phase of these excavations which began after 1909. This dating is derived as the Italian authorities have no written, descriptive entries or photographic archival documentation of any marble head finds from the Roman forum of the Barbarian statues prior to 1909.   It was also not until September 1909 that Dr. Professor Bartoli's team began their explorations in the zone of the Basilica Aemilia.  As a result of this and other evidence described in the New York Court's Application for Turnover it seems most likely that the marble head was found sometime around 1910.

In this instance, the Alexander head has sold in the United States and in the United Kingdom on multiple occasions.

But where was the object bought and sold? 

While the documentation of this object's collection history is spartan, we know that on 22 November 1974 the head of Alexander sold for a mere $650, having been consigned by the Hagop Kevorkian fund to Sotheby Parke Bernet.  Sotheby’s Auction House acquired Parke Bernet Galleries in 1964 and adopted the name Sotheby Parke Bernet throughout the 1970s.  Today, this auction house is known simply as Sotheby’s.  The buyer at the time was listed only as "Altertum Ltd."

Sometime after that date the object was then purportedly purchased by Professor Oikonomides who indicated to others that he purchased the object while vacationing in Cairo, Egypt sometime between 1984 and 1986.  The object was then bequeathed to Dr. Miller by Oikonomides through his estate when he passed away in 1988.

Sotheby's Website Screen Capture taken 24 July 2018

On 08 December 2011 the object sold at Sotheby's for a second time during Sotheby’s Egyptian, Classical and Western Asiatic Antiquities sale .

At the time of this auction, the purported provenance for the object was listed as:

Hagop Kevorkian (1872-1962), New York, most likely acquired prior to World War II
The Hagop Kevorkian Fund (Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, November 22nd, 1974, no. 317, illus.)
A.N. Oikonomides, Chicago

But with very little in the way of documentation to confirm this narrative.

The object sold to an unidentified buyer for $92,500 USD.

In May 2017, the head of Alexander surfaced across the Atlantic.  This time the ancient marble head went up for sale in the United Kingdom, having once been in the possession of former Qatari culture minister and cousin of the current ruler of the oil-rich Arab country, Sheikh Saud bin Mohammed Ali Al-Thani.  Before his death in 2014 Sheikh Saud Al-Thani was believed to have been the world's richest art collector.

Through Classical Galleries Limited, UK the Sheikh’s foundation sold the head of Alexander to Alan Safani of Safani Gallery for $152,625 on June 20, 2017.

Object Identified

Safani Gallery Booth - TEFAF 2018 Image Credit: L. Albertson

By an amazing bit of serendipity, on 19 February 2018 Dr. Patrizia Fortini, Director and Coordinator of the Archaeological Site of the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill chanced upon an advertisement which featured a photo of the stolen head in a publication for the upcoming 2018 Fine Arts Expo known as TEFAF.  In the dealer's documentation, a photograph of the marble head had been included highlighting Safani Gallery's offerings for the upcoming Maastricht sale scheduled to be held in the Netherlands from March 10 through 18 in 2018.

The photo in the advertisement and the old archival documentation photo of the head in the Museo Forense’s cloister were identified as one and the same object and as a result, Italy moved forward in requesting the object's seizure.

“[a] finding that the Manhattan DA violated the Constitution by seizing the Head without probable cause and without due process would not change the fact that only the state court can order the disposition of the Head.”

By:  Lynda Albertson