Italy’s Carabinieri recover Medieval sculpture stolen in 1977

The cultural heritage protection unit of Italy’s Carabinieri police force has recovered a “valuable” wooden Medieval sculpture that was stolen from the Castello di Monselice in 1977.

The Carabinieri said in a statement that the statue of the “Madonna and Child” was recovered in the town of Zogno. It is just under 4 feet tall, sits on an octagonal wooden base and dates to the early 1400s. It has been attributed to the workshops of Pisa and Lucca associated with the Sienese artist Francesco di Valdambrino.

The statue was stolen on March 10, 1977, from Castello Cini and the theft was reported at the time to the Carabinieri station in that area.

The castle complex, historically known as Castello Cini, was associated with the Italian industrialist and art collector Vittorio Cini, who restored and furnished it beginning in 1935.

Ownership later passed from the Cini family to the Regione del Veneto in 1981, and the site is now operated as a public museum known as Castello di Monselice.

The Carabinieri said investigators found the sculpture after monitoring the internet and identifying a 2015 scientific publication by researcher Federica Siddi describing the object, revealing its location at the Museum of San Lorenzo di Zogno.

The Public Prosecutor's Office in Bergamo ordered the return of the statue to the Giorgio Cini Foundation in Venice. Castello di Monselice officials said in a separate statement that the identity of the thieves who stole the sculpture remains unknown.

“This is a crucial moment, not only for the history of Vittorio Cini’s collection, which the Foundation has always sought to preserve, but also for launching new research into the rediscovered work, already cautiously attributed to the Sienese sculptor Francesco di Valdambrino,” the Cini Foundation said.

The foundation said the statue would be displayed in “the splendid location chosen for it by Vittorio Cini” at the Castello di Monselice until the spring of 2027, beginning with a ceremony scheduled for March 27.

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