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Fiastra: theft from the church of San Paolo, two precious panel paintings returned after 42 years

These are two oil paintings on canvas applied on wood depicting two Mysteries of the Rosary, the Visitation of the Madonna to Saint Elizabeth and the Ascent of Christ to Calvary.

Fiastra: theft from the church of San Paolo, two precious panel paintings returned after 42 years.

On February 29, 2024, at 11.00 am, inside the conference room of the MARec Museum (Museum of Recovered Art) of San Severino Marche (MC), two oil paintings on canvas applied on wood depicting two Mysteries of the Rosary, the Visitation of the Madonna to Saint Elizabeth and the Ascent of Christ to Calvary, were returned by the Commander of the Carabinieri Unit for the Protection of Cultural Heritage (TPC) of Bologna, Lt. Col. Giuseppe De Gori, to HE Mons. Francesco MASSARA, Archbishop of Camerino and San Severino Marche.

The ceremony took place in the presence of the Mayor of Fiastra, Sauro Scaficchia, of the Provincial Carabinieri Commander of Macerata, Colonel Nicola Candido, of the Director of Museums and Deposits of the Archdiocese of Camerino and San Severino Marche, Dr. Barbara Mastrocola, and Dr. Matteo Mazzalupi, Art historian.

Both paintings on wood, respectively 22,6 x 22 cm depicting the "Visitation of the Madonna" and 22 x 24,2 cm depicting the “Climb to Calvary”, were stolen in 1982 from the parish church of San Paolo in Fiastra, together with others with which they constituted a complete cycle of the fifteen Mysteries of the Rosary, and were identified by the TPC Unit of Bologna in November 2023.

The careful investigation activity was developed by the Carabinieri TPC after having ascertained, during the regular control and monitoring activity of goods sold on e-commerce platforms in Italy, the marketing of the two works at a Bolognese auction house.

In fact, the images of the two removed paintings had been inserted at the time of the theft in the "Database of illicitly stolen cultural assets" managed by the TPC Command, and, precisely from the preliminary investigations conducted, the Carabinieri, after having noted that the photos of the assets put up for sale by an auction house were identical to those of the works stolen in 1982 from inside the Church of San Paolo in Fiastra (a place of worship currently unusable following the seismic events that hit central Italy in 2016) , ordered their immediate seizure, thus preventing their further marketing.

Comparison between the photos registered in the TPC database and those of the tablets offered for sale.

For the positive outcome of the case, the subsequent investigations conducted by the Carabinieri TPC with the fundamental collaboration of Dr. Barbara Mastrocola, Director of the Museums and Deposits of the Archdiocese of Camerino and San Severino Marche, who through the consultation of the Clergy archives managed to identify a series of documents that confirm the inventory of the two works as belonging to the Church of San Paolo di Fiastra. The tablets recovered are two of the 15, depicting the Mysteries of the Rosary, which framed in an inverted U shape a polychrome wooden statue of the Madonna and Child dating back to the early XNUMXth century.

At the conclusion of the activities conducted by the Carabinieri dell'Arte, which sees a person under investigation for receiving stolen goods of cultural heritage, the Public Prosecutor's Office at the Court of Bologna has thus ordered the release of the precious tablets, allowing the Archdiocese of Camerino and San Severino Marche to finally be able to return them to the community after a wait of over forty years and then expose them to the admiration of the faithful in the Church of San Paolo in Fiastra, upon completion of the restoration work.

Fiastra: furto alla chiesa di San Paolo: riconsegnati dopo 42 anni due preziosi dipinti su tavola.

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