A success story of the Italian Embassy in Ottawa and of the Foreign Ministry is represented by the recovery of two important Italian works of art that had been smuggled out of the Country: two masterpieces of unmatched artistic, historic and religious value were tracked in Canada and returned to Italy.
The artworks are the Bas-relief of the Madonna and Child by Luca and Andrea della Robbia dating back to the end of the 1400s, and a 14th century Predella with episodes from the life of Jesus and Mary, attributed to Manfredino da Pistoia.
The Bas-relief had been taken from the Church of St. John the Baptist in Scansano in 1971 and recognised by the Carabinieri in 2013 among the works sold to a company based in New York. The piece was later traced to the home of a Canadian art collector who had purchased it in good faith.
Instead, the Predella was taken from a private home in Varazze in 1988 and recovered in London in February 2019 from a Canadian art collector.
The two artworks were recovered and returned to Italy through two out-of-court negotiations conducted by the security expert at the Embassy.
The Bas-relief and the Predella were presented in Rome on 17 April, together with other works of art, at a conference aimed at illustrating the activity carried out by the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage (the so-called “Art Squad”) in 2018, at the attendance of the Minister of Cultural Heritage and Activities, Alberto Bonisoli.
Italian Embassy in Ottawa
