According to some, Italy is the place with the highest concentration of works of art per square kilometer. But it is impossible to know the exact number. As it is impossible to estimate the number of masterpieces that have been stolen in the peninsula. The raids that took place in our country spanned the millennia and continue undisturbed even today.
Napoleon, the greatest art thief in history
One of the greatest raiders in history was Napoleon. During his wars of conquest, Napoleon systematically stole the masterpieces of the conquered countries to take them to Paris, the capital of the empire. Some works were saved, such as the Pala d'Oro di San Marco, in Venice. The French in fact, given the enormous quantity of precious stones in the altarpiece, thought it was a fake and left it where it was. The altarpiece was then hidden by a Venetian as a precaution. The bronze horses that stood on the facade of the same church had a different fate, recovered in Paris and brought back to the lagoon only in 1815.
Canova, from sculptor to investigator
As in the whole peninsula, also in Rome many works of art were stolen in that period. At the fall of the Napoleonic empire, Cardinal Consalvi commissioned the great sculptor Antonio Canova to bring the stolen masterpieces back to the Papal State. Out of a hundred stolen works, Canova managed to bring 78 back to Rome.
Hitler and Italian works of art
Another great art thief was the Third Reich. During the Nazi occupation Italy was once again plundered of its treasures. It is not known exactly the number of masterpieces stolen in that period and which now in large part could be scattered all over the world. However, it is known that at the end of the war the allies returned to Italy 252.068 works of art found in Germany. All the Italian works found in the Russian sector, however, disappeared into thin air.
The bleeding of stolen works of art today
It is common to think that the looting of works of art takes place in wartime. It is not so. The Napoleonic and Nazi thefts are a no brainer when compared to the thefts of the contemporary era. In the 70s a nucleus of carabinieri was founded with the aim of tracing stolen works of art. From 1970 to 2013, 690.462 art objects and 1.055.451 archaeological finds were recovered. These numbers refer to a small part of the objects that are looted in Italy today.
Where do all these stolen works of art go?
It is estimated that the business of art theft involves about 40.000 people in Italy alone, who go on to feed a turnover of billions of dollars every year. The most important stolen works of art end up in the hands of unscrupulous collectors, they are not exhibited because they would be immediately identified. An infinity of stolen objects, however, end up in the hands of antique dealers or even large auction houses.
Even if stolen works of art are identified, it is not always easy to recover them
Very often the stolen goods become the subject of a legal dispute with uncertain outcomes. Also great museums like the Metropolitan Museum in New York, they refuse to return what is blatantly stolen legally purchased from auction houses.
The case of the paintings stolen in Verona that Ukraine does not want to return to us
In November 2015, 17 paintings including some by Tintoretto, Rubens and Mantenga, were stolen from the Castelvecchio museum in Verona. After a few months, the paintings were found in Ukraine and the gang of robbers was arrested. Six months after the discovery, the precious canvases are still in Ukraine and our politicians are silent. No one is doing anything to recover that immense treasure that belongs to us. And yes, because a lot, painting more painting less, in Italy we are full of that stuff.
