[MSN] Italian city rings alarm bells over 1994 art theft. Among the paintings that disappeared from a municipal art gallery in Catania, on Sicily, were a Rembrandt and a painting by the great Italian Baroque artist Guido Reni. But what is unusual about this particular alleged theft is that it took place 13 years ago - and has only just been discovered.

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Italian city rings alarm bells over 1994 art theft

John Hooper in Rome
Tuesday November 27, 2007
The Guardian

It has been called "the robbery of the century". Among the paintings that disappeared from a
municipal art gallery in Catania, on Sicily, were a Rembrandt and a painting by the great
Italian Baroque artist Guido Reni. But what is unusual about this particular alleged theft is
that it took place 13 years ago - and has only just been discovered.
The Catania councillor responsible for culture, Silvana Grasso, yesterday formally reported the
disappearance of 51 works of art following the discovery of a 1995 document in which their
disappearance was notified to the carabinieri.

In the document a council official, in a 12-line statement, reported that his subordinates had
noted the absence of the treasures nine months earlier, in May 1994. He told the police he had
ordered the subordinates to make inquiries at all the public buildings to which the works of
art might have been lent. "Since the said inquiries failed to yield a positive result," he was
reporting them as missing.
It is not clear why neither the police nor the official concerned took any further action to
recover the works, which could now be worth millions of pounds. Grasso said the mayor,
councillors and central government representatives at the time all bore a responsibility.

Grasso stumbled on what she termed "the robbery of the century" after being assigned to
overhaul the running of the art gallery and a civic museum, both housed in the medieval Ursino
castle. "The culture of the city has been raped," she told the newspaper Corriere della Sera.

There is no photographic record of the Rembrandt. All that remains is a note describing it as
being of a "monk holding a ..." The last word is unclear.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/