Caravaggio Nativity Art Theft October 1969 Has a Casualty or Survivor?

Summary: Rumors of destruction by rough gangs and storage flourish since the Caravaggio Nativity art theft Oct. 18, 1969, and follow precedents in war casualties.

view of Palermo's ancient harbor (center) with the Kalsa neighborhood, scene of the 1969 Caravaggio Nativity art theft, in Palermo's historic center, to the southeast (center right): Bjs, CC BY SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

Rumors of accidental destruction in hideaways or of deliberate destruction after incidental damage during takeaways abound in the unsolved mystery of the Caravaggio Nativity art theft Oct. 18, 1969, in Palermo, Sicily.

The category of accidental destruction breaks down into subcategories of adverse ecological associations, detrimental environmental conditions or severe natural disasters and of rough manhandling by perpetrators. It correlates with purportedly destroyed Chácara do Céu Museum art theft casualties Feb. 24, 2006, and Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft casualties March 18, 1990.

Destruction does not describe logical dispositions of stolen artworks since retrieval of masterpieces sometimes demands immunity or leniency for controllers and perpetrators and rewards for informants. It explains the disappearance forever of two other oils by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (Sept. 29, 1571-July 18, 1610) in times of war, not of peace.

Caravaggio's Portrait of a Courtesan, housed as part of Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani's collection in the Kaiser-Friedrich Museum and presumably destroyed during Allied bombing of Berlin during World War II, is known only through photographs: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Wartime bombing felled Ritratto di cortigiana (Portrait of courtesan [Fillide Melandroni, Jan. 8, 1582-July 3, 1618]) and San Matteo e l'angelo (Saint Matthew and the Angel).

The 25.98- by 20.87-inch (66- by 53-centimeter) portrait and the 87.79- by 72.05-inch (223- by 183-centimeter) religious artwork get Berlin, Germany, as their last known whereabouts. Provenance records have for both paintings the last known specific physical address of the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum, hit during Allied bombing of Berlin (Aug. 25, 1940-April 20/21, 1945). The museum rubble indicates neither survived even though the Allied bombing of the Dresden Museum (Feb. 13-15, 1945) invokes a precedent for survival against all odds.

Admirers, collectors, critics and historians judge as miraculous, on par with reclaiming the Caravaggio Nativity art theft casualty, retrieving the Sistine Madonna (Madonna di San Sisto).

Caravaggio's Saint Matthew and the Angel, presumably destroyed during Allied bombing of Berlin during World War II, is known only through a black-and-white photograph (left) of the painting, from which a colorized photographic version (right) is derived: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Art-lovers know Raffaello Sanzi da Urbino's (March 28, 1483?-April 6, 1520) altarpiece of 1512 because of rescue by Russian forces in 1945 and return in 1955.

Inventories list the Caravaggio Nativity's likewise miraculous survival of Allied bombing of Sicily (July 9/10, 1943-Aug. 17, 1943) and of Sack of Palermo construction booms (1950s-1980s). Clan competitions, and rivalries and turf conflicts maintain demilitarized and militarized zones of operations, manifest militaristic objectives and military-like organizations and mar boot camp-like training initiation. Stephen Kurkjian, Boston Globe reporter, Master Thieves author and Pulitzer Prize recipient, noted gang rivalries and turf wars as needling the brutally cunning Gardner Museum intervention.

The Caravaggio Nativity art theft perpetrators obtained Gardner Museum art crime-like occurrences in an after-hours, late-night opportunity, cutter, knife or razor-blade means and peripheral property damage.

Soviet safekeeping of Raphael's Sistine Madonna altarpiece gives hope of resurfacing of other artworks thought to have been destroyed during World War II; Sistine Madonna in Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, east central Germany, June 1, 2012, during celebration of painting's 500th anniversary: cea + (cea), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr

Lynda Albertson, Chief Executive Officer of the Association for Research into Crimes Against Art in Rome, Italy, provides a positive perspective for the purloined Caravaggio Nativity. Art crimes queue into standard operating procedures since "I think it is often used as collateral for other illicit activity, and kept in a safe place."

Ludovico Gippetto, founder of Extroart, likewise renders safe returns as realistic and realizable since "The turnover in stolen art is second to the turnover from drugs."

Charlie Hill, Scotland Yard Art and Antiques Unit former member, states that mafiosi "want to test the water and see how people will react" to terms.

Seventy to 80 Caravaggio masterpieces tend toward threatened species status, with one Caravaggio Nativity art theft, one Saint Sebastian truant 300-plus years and two wartime casualties.

Street artist Andrea Ravo Mattoni with his December 2016 spray painting of Caravaggio's Natività con i santi Lorenzo e Francesco d'Assise in Piazza De Gasperi, San Salvatore di Fitalia, Messina province, northeastern Sicily: ARCA ‏@ARCA_artcrime via Twitter Dec. 14, 2016

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

view of Palermo's ancient harbor (center) with the Kalsa neighborhood, scene of the 1969 Caravaggio Nativity art theft, in Palermo's historic center, to the southeast (center right): Bjs, CC BY SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Palermo-Panorama-bjs-3.jpg

Caravaggio's Portrait of a Courtesan, housed as part of Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani's collection in the Kaiser-Friedrich Museum and presumably destroyed during Allied bombing of Berlin during World War II, is known only through photographs: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fillide_Melandroni.png?uselang=fr

Caravaggio's Saint Matthew and the Angel, presumably destroyed during Allied bombing of Berlin during World War II, is known only through a black-and-white photograph (left) of the painting, from which colorized photographic versions are derived:
Bode Museum, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Michelangelo_Merisi_da_Caravaggio_-_St_Matthew_and_the_Angel_-_WGA04127.jpg
Mickeytheangel, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Caravaggio_MatthewAndTheAngel_byMikeyAngels.jpg

Soviet safekeeping of Raphael's Sistine Madonna altarpiece gives hope of resurfacing of other artworks thought to have been destroyed during World War II; Sistine Madonna in Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, east central Germany, June 1, 2012: cea + (cea), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/centralasian/7314023718/

Street artist Andrea Ravo Mattoni with his December 2016 spray painting of Caravaggio's Natività con i santi Lorenzo e Francesco d'Assise in Piazza De Gasperi, San Salvatore di Fitalia, Messina province, northeastern Sicily: ARCA ‏@ARCA_artcrime via Twitter Dec. 14, 2016, @ https://twitter.com/ARCA_artcrime/status/809110853018591233

For further information:

Antonello De Messina @AntonelloDeMess. 2 May 2017. "L'oratorio di San Lorenzo. Replica of the stolen Caravaggio. Bellissimo Nativity." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/AntonelloDeMess/status/859471622884995073

ARCA ‏@ARCA_artcrime. 14 December 2016. "Thanks to street art Andrea Ravo Mattoni Sicilians can again admire Caravaggio's nativity painting, stolen by the Mafia in Palermo in 1969." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/ARCA_artcrime/status/809110853018591233

Kirchgaessner, Stephanie. 10 December 2015. "'Restitution of a Lost Beauty': Caravaggio Nativity Replica Brought to Palermo." The Guardian > Arts > Art & Design > Art Theft.
Available @ https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/dec/10/restitution-lost-beauty-stolen-caravaggio-nativity-replica-brought-palermo

Kurkjian, Stephen. 2015. Master Thieves: The Boston Gangsters Who Pulled Off the World's Greatest Art Heist. New York NY: PublicAffairs.

Marriner, Derdriu. 20 October 2017. "Caravaggio Nativity Art Theft in Sicily: Unsolved Since October 1969." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/10/caravaggio-nativity-art-theft-in-sicily.html

Mattoni, Andrea Ravo. "Caravaggio, Nativity." Andrea Ravo Mattoni > Progetti e Opere.
Available @ http://andrearavomattoni.com/en/progetti-e-opere/caravaggio-la-nativita/

Mattoni, Andrea Ravo (andrea_ravo_mattoni). 12 December 2016. "Questo quadro fu trafugato a Palermo fra il 17 e 18 ottobre del 1969 dell'oratorio di San Lorenzo, é la "Natività con i santi Lorenzo e Francesco d'Assise" di Caravaggio. É il sesto dipinto del mio progetto "recupero del classicismo nel contemporaneo" L'ho realizzato a San Salvatore di Fitalia in provincia di Messina, spray su muro. Volevo ringraziare il comune di San Salvatore di Fitalia, il Sindaco Rosario Ventimiglia e l'assessore Francesco Lollo per aver ospitato un'altro mio lavoro, e poi ringrazio in particolar modo la Damiano Organic e il suo CEO Riccardo Damiano, per aver finanziato e reso possibile l'intera operazione." Instagram.
Available @ https://www.instagram.com/p/BN7Sf3fAgZ-/

McNearney, Allison. 9 October 2016. "Did the Mafia Steal Caravaggio's 'Nativity of St. Francis and St. Lawrence'?" The Daily Beast > Arts + Culture > Lost Masterpieces.
Available @ http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/10/09/did-the-mafia-steal-caravaggio-s-nativity-of-st-francis-and-st-lawrence.html

Prosperin delle grottesche. 12 December 2016. "La Natività di Caravaggio rivive nel murales di Andrea Ravo Mattoni." Caravaggio400.Blogspot.
Available @ http://caravaggio400.blogspot.com/2016/12/la-nativita-di-caravaggio-rivive-nel.html

Schütze, Sebastian. 2017. Caravaggio: Complete Works. Cologne, Germany: Taschen.

Sooke, Alastair. 23 December 2013. "Caravaggio's Nativity: Hunting a Stolen Masterpiece." British Broadcasting Corporation > Culture > Art > State of the Art > Art History > History.
Available @ http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20131219-hunting-a-stolen-masterpiece

"Theft of Caravaggio's Nativity with San Lorenzo and San Francesco." Federal Bureau of Investigation > What We Investigate > Violent Crime > Art Theft > FBI Top Ten Art Crimes Art Crime Team.
Available @ https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/violent-crime/art-theft/fbi-top-ten-art-crimes/nativity-with-san-lorenzo-and-san-francesco

Watson, Peter. 1984. The Caravaggio Conspiracy: A True Story of Deception, Theft, and Smuggling in the Art World. New York NY: Penguin/Doubleday.