The 'Altarpiece' operation, in collaboration with the Carabinieri, has recovered 62 cultural assets valued at over three million euros that were illegally exported from Spain from Marbella. Among the pieces is a 16th-century altarpiece and works by Modigliani and Rodin.
A polychrome altarpiece from the early 16th century, several Renaissance panels, and works attributed to Amedeo Modigliani, Auguste Rodin, and Pieter Brueghel the Younger are part of the lot of 62 cultural assets recovered by the Civil Guard and Italian Carabinieri. The provisional value of the collection exceeds three million euros.
The investigation, dubbed 'operation Altarpiece', began in June 2023 when Italian authorities, through Europol, located a polychrome wooden altarpiece in a mansion situated by Lake Maggiore, in the town of Lesa. The work was transferred to the Sabauda Gallery in Turin for conservation while investigations progressed.
The trail from Marbella
Agents from the Historical Heritage Section of the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard confirmed that the altarpiece left Spain despite the Ministry of Culture explicitly denying permission for its export in 2018. The owners were a German couple residing in Marbella who, according to the investigation, managed to smuggle the piece out of the country through irregular means before passing away in Italy.
It was not just the altarpiece. Investigators reconstructed the transfer of more than 90 artworks from Marbella to Italy using a transport company not specialised in cultural goods. By cross-referencing images with the Carabinieri, Italian authorities located numerous pieces in the same residence in Lesa, as well as others in art galleries and private homes in Milan and Genoa. Some had already been sold and sent to third countries, necessitating an expansion of international cooperation.
International judicial collaboration
The case has been directed by the Investigating Court number 1 of Marbella, which initiated several European Investigation Orders directed at Italy and Germany, as well as a letter of request to the United Kingdom to facilitate the recovery of the artworks dispersed outside Spain.
The official restitution of the pieces was celebrated this Thursday at the Sabauda Gallery in Turin with the presence of representatives from the Spanish Ministry of Culture, the Spanish Consulate General in Milan, the Civil Guard, and the Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of the Carabinieri. For the residents of Marbella, this operation reinforces the city's image as a point of origin for illicit trafficking, but also as an example of international collaboration to recover looted heritage.
Now, the Ministry of Culture will be responsible for determining their final destination once the cataloguing and expert valuation tasks are completed, which could further increase the value of the recovered collection. Meanwhile, the artworks remain in Turin, awaiting diplomatic procedures to allow their return to Spain.
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