Italy recovers 3 paintings stolen from museums
Giusto de’ Menabuoi, one of the artists whose works were stolen, painted the Chapel of Blessed Luca Belludi in the Basilica of St. Anthony of Padua in northern Italy in 1382. Didier Descouens image. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
ROME (AP) – Italy’s art police say they’ve recovered three paintings stolen in recent months from three small Bologna-area museums, after identifying the thief from surveillance videos.
The most well-known piece was a 1363 portrait of St. Ambrose attributed to Giusto de’ Menabuoi that was stolen in March from the National Pinacoteca of Bologna while it was open to the public.
In a statement Friday, the carabinieri art squad said investigators were able to zero in on the thief using surveillance videos from the museums and tracked him down when he acted “suspiciously” near another Bologna museum.
They then searched his apartment and found the looted paintings.
Police filed a formal criminal complaint against him for aggravated theft.
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AP-WF-05-04-18 1220GMT
