IN WHAT HAS TO BE ONE OF THE MOST PECULIAR ART HEISTS to come to light in recent memory, Italy's public broadcaster, RAI, said that some 120 artworks have been stolen from its offices at various points over the past half-century, including prints by Modigliani, Monet, and other noted artists, the AFP reports. Officials apparently became aware of the issue earlier this year, when a painting supposedly by the Italian artist Ottone Rosai fell off the wall and was identified as a copy. Police found the man who swapped it in for the original in the '70s, and he confessed to selling the vintage piece, but the statute of limitations has run out, the Guardian reports. Authorities think most of the works were taken in the last 25 years by others. Fakes took the place of some while others vanished.
The story of the missing artworks at Italy's public broadcaster Rai would make a riveting televised mystery.
But the disappearance of no fewer than 120 paintings, sculptures, lithographs and tapestries from the walls of the broadcaster is fact, not fiction, say authorities.
The art heritage squad within Italy's Carabinieri police has been investigating the missing artwork since March, when Rome prosecutors opened a probe after being alerted by Rai management, according to Italian media.
Some of the works appear to have disappeared into thin air, while others were removed from walls and replaced by fakes, according to Il Messaggero and La Repubblica dailies.
Police did not immediately respond to a request for information from AFP.
Among the missing pieces are valuable works by Amedeo Modigliani, Claude Monet, Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, and Giorgio De Chirico –all part of the Rai's collection of about 1,500 works worth an estimated 100 million euros, according to news reports.
The case first came to light when it was discovered that a painting by Florentine painter Ottone Rosai hanging on the walls of the Rai's Rome headquarters was a fake.
The original had been stolen in the 1970s and then sold by a Rai employee whom police have tracked down, media reported.
The man can no longer be charged due to the statute of limitations having expired.
"We are facing a series of disappearances that seem to be targeted," Rai executive Nicola Sinisi, who is charged with the broadcaster's artistic heritage, told La Repubblica.
The works, according to news reports, were acquired with proceeds from the television licence fee paid for by Italian households.
Italian TV employees suspected of thieving dozens of works of art
‘Priceless’ pieces removed from Rai’s offices by employees and replaced with fakes, police believe
“Disloyal employees” at Italy’s public broadcaster, Rai, are suspects in the theft of dozens of works of art from its offices thought to date back to the 1970s.
In what the daily newspaper Il Messaggero has described as “the sack of Rai”, the “priceless” artworks were removed from the broadcaster’s headquarters in Rome and units across the country and replaced with fakes. The works included original paintings by Renato Guttuso and etchings by Claude Monet and Amedeo Modigliani.
It was only by chance that Rai chiefs discovered the pieces were stolen when, a few months ago, a painting fell off the wall in an office at Rai’s headquarters, and from the broken frame it was found to be a copy of the original Architettura by Ottone Rosai.
The incident was reported to Italy’s art police and before long they identified the culprit – a retired Rai employee who admitted to stealing the original painting and selling it for 25m lira in the 1970s. The man will not face justice as the statute of limitations on the crime has expired.
Rai then researched its catalogue of artworks, much of which were bought in the 1960s and 70s, and found that 120 original works, including bronze and gold statues by the sculptor Francesco Messina, were missing. Police believe most of the thefts were carried out since 1996, the year Rai held an exhibition of its artworks in the Puglia city of Lecce.
Police believe “disloyal employees” are most probably behind the rest of the thefts, Il Messaggero reported.
Among the stolen works were an etching that Monet made of his Paysage de Verneuil, along with an etching Modigliani did of Petit Fils and one by Alfred Sisley of his Hampton Court.
Other paintings stolen included Domenica della Buona Gente by Guttuso, Vita nei Campi by Giorgio De Chirico, Il Colosseo by Giovanni Stradone and Porto di Genova by Francesco Menzio.
“These were works of great value that were just hanging on the walls of the corridors or rooms in Rai’s buildings, without any alarm system, and so anyone could just walk in and take them,” said Giuseppe Scarpa, a journalist covering the investigation for the newspaper.
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