THE ARCHIVE BY COUNTRY
Published reports from our archive, newest first.
A country may refer to the theft, recovery, return or legal proceedings. A case can be linked to more than one country.
51 reports · Page 1 / 3
Italian State Police recovered four rare 17th-century books stolen from the church of Santa Maria della Guardia and handed them back to the parish priest. Police reported two people to judicial authorities on suspicion of receiving stolen property. The photograph shows the recovered books, as published by Catania News.
Carabinieri recovered all the liturgical objects stolen from the church of Santi Faustino e Giovita on 1 November, including chalices and silver-plated dishes. Found intact in a bag hidden in nearby vegetation, they were returned to the parish priest. The investigation to identify those responsible remains open.
Carabinieri reported the restitution of 54 objects seized at Marina di Cerveteri. Following completion of legal proceedings, the objects were permanently assigned to the Ministry of Culture for local museum display. They include Etruscan vessels and terracotta figurines. The release identifies no individual conviction.
Carabinieri examining manuscripts seized in the Palermo investigation; Carabinieri via QdS. Image source ↗
Carabinieri announced a seizure of art, antiquities and manuscripts valued at approximately €400,000 after thefts reported by a dealer in 2024. Two people were under investigation for alleged theft and receiving stolen goods. The release does not establish a conviction or that every seized item was stolen.
AP reported that the works attributed to Antonello da Messina included three polyptych panels and a double-sided panel.
Police recovered three paintings stolen from a private museum in Italy in March.
The Fiesole Altarpiece returned to San Domenico after a two-year conservation project. Infrared imaging revealed Fra Angelico’s original design for a throne beneath changes made by Lorenzo di Credi in 1501. Conservators also stabilized the wooden support and treated cracks in the painted surface.
Romanian police handed over ten paintings recovered in a joint investigation with Italy’s Carabinieri. The works, dated between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries and attributed to Italian painters, were taken from a private home in Bassano del Grappa in August 2024. Image of a recovered canvas published by Italia Nostra.
Three works were taken during a burglary at a private museum. Their recovery is recorded separately in the archive.
The recovered Etruscan statuette at the Bologna return ceremony; Carabinieri TPC / museum press material. Image source ↗
Carabinieri returned an Etruscan bronze warrior statuette to Bologna’s Museo Civico Archeologico at a ceremony on 19 December 2025. The museum had reported its theft on 30 October 1963. The object was traced in the United States. This report records its return to the Bologna museum, rather than treating the ceremony as the date of the earlier US restitution.
Carabinieri returned a Virgin and Child miniature stolen in the 1980s. Investigators spotted it on a London auction website and traced it to a Swiss branch of an auction company, which agreed to surrender it. Image of the miniature supplied by Carabinieri and published by The Journal of Cultural Heritage Crime.
The Carabinieri seized 21 objects from Salvador Dalí: Between Art and Myth after the Gala–Salvador Dalí Foundation flagged authenticity concerns during the show’s run in Rome. The seizure included tapestries, drawings and engravings. Photo shows officers with some of the seized works, Carabinieri via AP.
The Madonna and Child by Antonio Solario returned to Belluno’s civic museums on 21 July 2025, more than fifty years after the theft. Its last private possessor voluntarily surrendered the painting to Carabinieri at the Italian Embassy in London. The handover photograph was published by Rai News and credited to ANSA.
Italian authorities seized works marketed as originals by artists including Picasso, Munch and Klee. The report concerns the seizure and investigation. Still from the RAI report on the seizure.
Fra Angelico’s Deposition altarpiece went back on display at Florence’s Museo di San Marco. Its return followed a two-year conservation project.
Carabinieri investigating online art sales reported seizing 71 counterfeit works attributed to artists including Pablo Picasso and Rembrandt. At a workshop in northern Rome they found works in progress, false gallery stamps and forged authenticity certificates. Photo shows Carabinieri inspecting the workshop.
Spanish police received paintings by Joaquín Sorolla and Hermenegildo Anglada Camarasa and a bronze by Javier Martín at their embassy in Rome. The paintings had been taken from a Madrid exhibition in 2021 and the sculpture from a Barcelona gallery in 2022. Image: Spain’s National Police, via Catalan News.
Authorities located Yousuf Karsh's The Roaring Lion in Italy after its theft from Ottawa's Château Laurier hotel. A copy had concealed the loss for months. Police said the print was sold through a London auction house to an Italian buyer, both unaware of the theft. At publication, its return to the hotel was planned; this report does not treat that future return as completed.
Jasper Geeraerts’s Still Life with Nautilus, Lemons, Ham and Glass was taken from its owner in a fraud in Venice in 1999. It later appeared at an auction house in Germany and was recovered by the Carabinieri after it was offered for sale again in Lombardy in 2021. ANSA reported the handover in July 2023. Image detail: ANSA.
Italian painter Lino Frongia was arrested as investigators examined suspected Old Master forgeries sold for millions. The case also involved dealer Giuliano Ruffini, transferred to France and charged in December 2022 with organised fraud and money laundering. At the article's publication, these were allegations under investigation; no conviction of Frongia was reported.
Carabinieri returned a Madonna and Child attributed to Lippo d’Andrea to the cathedral museum, where it had been stolen in 1968. Investigators matched auction photographs with the stolen-art database. ANSA reported that the picture had reappeared at a Swiss auction in 1999. Image: ANSA.
