The Civil Guard recovers in Italy a carving from the fifteenth century stolen virtually 50 years in the past in Palencia | Culture | EUROtoday

The Civil Guard, in a joint operation with the Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of the Italian Carabinieri (TPC), recovered in July final 12 months in Genoa (Italy) a fifteenth century carving stolen in December 1979 from the Church of Santa Eugenia de Astudillo (Palencia). It is a polychrome picket sculpture about seventy centimeters excessive, representing Saint Luke, attributed to the well-known sculptor Gil de Siloé. The investigation that led to the restoration, explains the Civil Guard assertion launched this Wednesday, started in July 2021 because of the alert of two Spanish vintage sellers, Pedro Jiménez and María Elizari, who noticed the piece put up on the market in a widely known public sale room in northern Italy. This Wednesday, after six months saved in storage on the National Museum of Sculpture in Valladolid, a supply ceremony was held on the headquarters of the Diocesan Museum of Palencia.

Along with Saint Luke, different figures from the parish altarpiece of Astudillo then disappeared, amongst them the remaining evangelists, apostles and varied items of nice inventive and devotional worth. During the supply of the piece this Wednesday, Lieutenant Colonel Domenico Menna, of the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage (Italy), underlined the symbolic worth of the restitution. “It is not just a security operation, but a duty towards the memory, identity and dignity of the communities. Returning this work to its place of belonging is also returning a part of its history,” he mentioned.

The vintage sellers themselves, after seeing the piece with a beginning worth of 5,000 euros, found that it was the carving stolen on the finish of the 70s. A key element, the absence of the left hand, allowed the sculpture to be clearly recognized via outdated pictures and the unique report of the theft. The Civil Guard then started what it referred to as Operation Predella and the Civil and Investigation Section of the Court of Instance of Palencia, answerable for this investigation, issued a European Investigation Order to Italy to proceed with the precautionary intervention of the work and thus have the ability to start the restitution work to Spain. In addition, the collaboration of Eurojust, the European Union Agency for Criminal Judicial Cooperation, was requested, from the place interjudicial communication was streamlined.

“The precautionary intervention was decisive in preventing its sale and its possible definitive disappearance,” mentioned General Miguel Sánchez Guerrero, head of the Civil Guard in Castilla y León, who highlighted the cooperation with the Carabinieri, Europol and Eurojust, in addition to the “exemplary role” of the vintage sellers who raised the alarm. The common recalled that the 1979 theft was a part of a interval that was “especially difficult for historical ecclesiastical heritage”, when many rural church buildings lacked safety measures. That context prompted, as he defined, the specialization of the safety forces within the combat towards the illicit trafficking of cultural property.

The bishop of Palencia, Miguel Garciandía Goñi, has additionally spoken about this: “We have become aware of our vulnerability and the need for rigorous inventories and shared custody with society.” The carving will likely be quickly exhibited within the Diocesan Museum till, as soon as security situations are assured, it may possibly return to Astudillo.