Thieves have stolen almost 50 pieces of gold jewelry by the Italian sculptor Umberto Mastroianni worth 1.2 million euros (US$1.31 million) in a targeted hit on an exhibition in northern Italy, curators said on Saturday.
A “highly specialized gang” on Wednesday night made off with almost the entire collection of rings, bracelets, pendants and sculptures by Mastroianni, considered one of Italy’s greatest contemporary sculptors, on display at the Vittoriale degli Italiani estate on Lake Garda.
Only one of the 49 items in the collection was recovered elsewhere on the estate, the Vittoriale said in a statement after a news conference on the theft.
Photo: Dino Capodiferro / Il Vittoriale degli Italiani / AFP
“These exceptional artifacts, true ‘wearable sculptures,’ represent the most important testimony of the master’s gold production,” Center for Studies of the Works of Umberto Mastroianni president Lorenzo Zichichi said.
If the pieces are not recovered, the theft — almost the entire collection of Mastroianni’s gold, which belonged to his relatives — would represent an “inestimable loss,” Zichichi said.
The exhibition, entitled “Like a warm and fluid gold. The golds of Umberto Mastroianni,” opened in December last year at the Museo d’Annunzio Segreto and was due to close on Friday.
The works were designed and forged by Mastroianni — also known for his huge monuments — from the 1950s until his death in 1998.
“Of the 49 works subject to the theft ... only one, entitled Man/Woman, was later found inside the complex,” the Vittoriale said, without providing further details.
Vittoriale director Giordano Bruno Guerri said he could not go into details of the robbery, which was under investigation by police and art specialists.
“But we can say that our alarm systems are very extensive and already of the highest level. We were evidently hit by a highly specialized gang,” Guerri said.
Other jewels next to the Mastroianni pieces were “not even touched,” he added.
Mastroianni’s works include monuments in several Italian towns honoring the World War II resistance movement.
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