Birth of Christ with Saints Laurence and Francis
The birth of Christ with Saints Laurentius and Francis is a large-format altarpiece by Caravaggio from 1609, which was in the Oratorio di San Lorenzo in Palermo until 1969 . It was stolen and has not been shown since. The painting is said to have been dismembered. According to another rumor, rumored by one of the bosses of the Cosa Nostra , the work of art was eaten by rats and pigs, and another mafia father is said to have used the painting as a bedside rug.
The painting was stolen by unknown perpetrators on the night of October 18-19, 1969. In 2001 the documentary filmmaker Massimo D'Anolfi created an interview with Monsignor Rocco Benedetto, who is said to have received two letters from the alleged Caravaggio thieves. The first letter contained the message: "We have the painting", the second, a ransom note, had a small piece of the picture attached. The painting was not returned because the office responsible for the supervision of cultural and environmental heritage in Palermo decided that no new contact should be sought. The priest died in 2003.
In 2017, the testimony of a key witness confirmed the suspicion that the painting was sold abroad in the 1970s. In 2018, Rosy Bindi, at the time President of Parliament's Ant Mafia Commission, said the painting had been smuggled into Switzerland and sold piece by piece by an art dealer who had since died. According to a former FBI investigator, Charles Hill, who successfully tracked Edvard Munch's "The Scream" , the picture would reappear as soon as Matteo Messina Denaro, the last fleeing great Mafia boss, was caught.
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Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c New details on legendary art theft , ORF, September 25, 2019
- ↑ A Caravaggio for Christmas: is his stolen Nativity masterpiece about to reappear? The Guardian (London), by Jonathan Jones, December 16, 2018