Stolen Goods Returned from Naples Churches

Napoli. Today at the Diocesan Museum of Napoli, numerous and very important goods stolen from various Neapolitan churches are returned by the Commander of the Unit for the Protection of Cultural Heritage (TPC) of Naples, Maj. Giampaolo Brasili, and by the Commander of the Antiques Section of the TPC Operations Department, Capt. Saverio Loiacono, to the Director of Cultural Heritage of the Diocese of Naples, Mons. Eduardo Parlato, in the presence of the Director of the Diocesan Museum of Naples, Mons. Adolfo Russo. An architectural element in polychrome marble, dating back to the 2th century, measuring approximately 1×1994 meters, stolen between 1995 and XNUMX from the Church of Sant'Aniello a Caponapoli, was returned.

The work was recently repatriated from the United States, where it had been intended as a decoration for a luxurious villa in Florida, owned by an Italian-American who, unaware of its illicit provenance, had purchased it from a Roman antique dealer during a vacation in Italy. Upon learning of the true provenance of the mask, the owner, a faithful practicing Christian, renounced ownership, happy to be able to have it relocated to the place of worship.

Thus, following an out-of-court negotiation conducted by the military of the Antiques Section of the TPC Operations Department and coordinated by the Rome Public Prosecutor's Office - Artistic Heritage pool, the work was repatriated. On the same occasion, an important painting depicting "Holy Trinity" was returned to Don Carmine Nappo, Parish Priest of the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Naples. The painting was stolen from the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Pizzofalcone in the 1980s following its closure during the earthquake.

The recovery activity, made possible by the investigative insights conducted as part of a more detailed investigation by the TPC Nucleus of Naples and coordinated by the Neapolitan Public Prosecutor's Office, allowed the recovery in December 2020, in a warehouse in Via Foria, of four works of art, including a seventeenth-century wooden statue stolen in 1973 from the State Museum Le Prieure Du Vieux Logis in Nice (FR), and to put an end to a real illicit traffic of cultural goods. Finally, a polychrome marble pilaster strip, with particular floral and vegetal decorations, about 3 meters long, dismembered from an altar of the Church of Gesu' e Maria, closed due to unusability since the XNUMXs following the tragic seismic event of the time, was returned.

In those years the place of worship was the object of various acts of looting, in fact other furnishings are still to be found. The pilaster strip was recovered from an antiques business in the Cuneo area, traced by the soldiers of the Antiques Section of the TPC Operations Department, during investigations coordinated by the Public Prosecutor's Office of Asti.

It has been reconstructed that the antique dealer had regularly purchased the pilaster strip from a well-known French auction house, which had had its availability for about fifteen years, exactly since 2007. Despite the time that had passed, the recognition of the asset was facilitated by Luigifranco Zoena, President of the social promotion association Euforika Napoli, which for about five years managed the Church of Gesu' e Maria in Naples, owned by the Arciconfraternita degli Uffiziali dei Banchi di San Potito, represented by Padre Fratellanza.

On the same day at 11:30, at the Superintendency, two very important works were returned by the Commander of the Unit for the Protection of Cultural Heritage (TPC) of Naples, Major Giampaolo Brasili, to the Superintendency Abap of Naples Arch. Luigi La Rocca, in the presence of officials of the Fund for Religious Buildings of the Prefecture of Naples. Two paintings, both 128,5x180,5 cm and dating back to the 17th century, depicting "The Annunciation" and "Dream of Saint Joseph", removed on 1969 October XNUMX from the Church of San Severino and San Sossio in Naples.

Their recovery is the result of a careful and targeted investigation carried out by the Tpc Data Processing Section on the websites of well-known auction houses, in particular that of a company from northern Italy, which promoted the sale of the two works for April 2019.

The investigations, conducted by the TPC Nucleus of Naples and coordinated by the Public Prosecutor's Office of Milan - VII Department specialized in the matter of the Protection of Cultural Heritage, traced the provenance of the paintings to the aforementioned theft, even though the subjects proposing the sale were unaware of it.

After the identification carried out by the competent local official, the goods were returned to the owner. Of fundamental importance for the identification of the goods was the comparison of the images of the seized objects with those contained in the "Database of illegally stolen cultural goods", managed by the TPC Command, the largest database in the world, with over 6 million registered cultural goods.

These restitutions testify to the importance of the collaboration between the Carabinieri TPC, the heads of the Diocesan Offices and the officials of the Superintendencies, also developed through the dissemination of the publication “Guidelines for the Protection of Ecclesiastical Cultural Heritage”, produced in 2014, within the framework of the collaboration between the Ministry of Culture, the Carabinieri and the Italian Episcopal Conference, which reconciles the needs of protection of ecclesiastical assets, often affected by criminal actions, and devotional ones.