Friday, November 3, 2017

Caravaggio Nativity Art Theft: Deadly Brutal Takeaway, Rough Hideaway


Summary: The longer the Caravaggio Nativity art theft Oct. 18, 1969, in Palermo, Sicily, stays unsolved the more it suggests deadly brutal takeaways and hideaways.


Could Caravaggio's stolen Nativity have been destroyed during the Irpinia earthquake in southern Italy? An informant places the stolen masterpiece in Laviano, a small mountain community where the earthquake left death and uninhabitable buildings; historical photo of post-earthquake Laviano: US Army Africa, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

The Oratorio di San Lorenzo (Oratory of Saint Lawrence) in Palermo, Sicily, accommodates the special ambient requirements of its missing altarpiece and masterpiece despite the Caravaggio Nativity art theft Oct. 18, 1969.
The longer art crimes belong in unsolved categories, the more they bring up fears of destruction by rough handling during takeaways and rough situations in hideaways. Destructive takeaways can come about through carelessness, through celerity, through challenges to calm cunning in confronting alarms, cameras, detectors, fixtures, guards and passersby or through contempt. Destructive situations in hideaways derive from incendiary events such as earthquakes, inclement weather such as storms and from inconsistent or incorrect humidity, light and temperature matches.
All of the above-mentioned agents, means and opportunities, whether motivated by accident or deliberation, emerge among excuses and extrapolations for almost 50 years of silent exile.

Town of Teora, located west of 1980 Irpinia earthquake's epicenter in Conza della Campania, suffered extensive damages; image uploaded 20 mag 2009 (May 20, 2009) to Italian Wikipedia by Razzairpina: pubblico dominio (Public Domain), via Italian Wikipedia

Disasters feature early on, with the Irpinia earthquake focused Nov. 23, 1980, upon Castelnuovo di Conza, Conza della Campania and Teora in southwest Italy's Campania region. The Earthquake Hazards Program of the United States Geological Survey gives 6.2-mile (10-kilometer) depths, 6.9 moment magnitudes and 19:34:53:800 Central European Time (18:34:53:800 Coordinated Universal Time). The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration website's significant earthquake database has 12,389 casualties (4,689 people killed and 7,700 injured), 400,000 homeless and $20 billion in damages.
The 1980 Irpinia earthquake hypothetically initiates the Caravaggio Nativity's damage or destruction, according to Peter Watson, intellectual historian and investigative reporter from Birmingham, England, United Kingdom. It hypothetically jolts an informant and the Caravaggio Nativity art theft casualty into oblivion in Laviano, Salerno province, 5.2 miles (8.4 kilometers) from Conza della Campania.

USGS ShakeMap of 1980 Irpinia earthquake; last updated 2017-04-12 at 05:58:04 UTC: ATLAS/US Geological Survey, Public Domain, via USGS Earthquake Hazards Program

Inclement weather, inconsiderate packaging and positioning and inconsistent or incorrect humidity, light and temperature levels keep hypothetical company with incendiary events regarding the truant Caravaggio Nativity.
Humidity at 50 percent, protection from light and temperature at 70 degrees Fahrenheit (21.11 degrees Celsius) let the Caravaggio Nativity last in the 400-plus-year-old painting's hideaway. Storage unrolled, to minimize cracking and flaking paint, and wrapped in acid-free paper at one humidity-, light- and temperature-controlled environment maintains the painting's longevity and value. The list of ambient and storage requirements nestles into familiar niches for listeners to the yearly message from Anne Hawley, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Director 1989-2015.
Adherence offers the Federal Bureau of Investigation's top 10 unsolved art crimes, including the Caravaggio Nativity art theft and the Gardner Museum art theft, optimistic outcomes.

entrance to Palermo's Oratorio di San Lorenzo, site of Caravaggio Nativity 1969 art theft: Museo Italiani, via Facebook Nov. 20, 2013

Both Van Gogh Museum art theft casualties, purloined Dec. 7, 2002, and put into 14-year storage by their purchaser, prove the positive pull of proper procedure. Brutal takeaways, not hideaways, qualify them for rigors as evidence against Raffaele Imperiale, exhibition in Italy and the Netherlands and restoration from May 15, 2017, onward.
Even more brutal takeaways render the heavier, larger Caravaggio Nativity and Gardner Museum stolen artworks far less resistant to rumored terminal brutality in their respective hideaways. Upright packaging in acid-free paper in clean, dark, disaster- and weather-proof, low-traffic, temperate storage supports survival, despite brutal takeaways, unless adverse associations and counterproductive strategies surface.
Refined replica, regular hours, restored interiors and revised security tell Caravaggio Nativity art theft perpetrators and controllers that the Oratory's restorers turn temporary hurts into haloes.

interior of Palermo's Oratorio di San Lorenzo: unlike the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Oratory has now replaced its stolen art masterpiece with a refined replica; like the Gardner Museum, the Oratory has updated security: Museo Italiani, via Facebook Nov. 28, 2014

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

Image credits:
Could Caravaggio's stolen Nativity have been destroyed during the Irpinia earthquake in southern Italy? An informant places the stolen masterpiece in Laviano, a small mountain community where the earthquake left death and uninhabitable buildings; historical photo of post-earthquake Laviano: US Army Africa, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/usarmyafrica/4074587181/
Town of Teora, located west of 1980 Irpinia earthquake's epicenter in Conza della Campania, suffered extensive damages; image uploaded 20 mag 2009 (May 20, 2009) to Italian Wikipedia by Razzairpina: pubblico dominio (Public Domain), via Italian Wikipedia @ https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Teora_1980.jpg
USGS ShakeMap of 1980 Irpinia earthquake: ATLAS/US Geological Survey, Public Domain, via USGS Earthquake Hazards Program @ https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usp0001ay4#shakemap
entrance to Palermo's Oratorio di San Lorenzo, site of Caravaggio Nativity 1969 art theft: Museo Italiani, via Facebook Nov. 20, 2013, @ https://www.facebook.com/MuseoItalia/posts/pfbid0AgAWVkk2hLR3zQgiRB3uF6kJB9tFyUrRWXpefsZRMGjiwQWu7wt4B1jhsEcQ2XeTl/;
Museo Italiani, via Facebook Nov. 20, 2013, @ https://www.facebook.com/MuseoItalia/photos/a.555755571172996.1073742059.128222747259616/555755861172967/;
Museo Italiani, via Facebook Nov. 20, 2013, @ https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=555755861172967&set=a.555755571172996
interior of Palermo's Oratorio di San Lorenzo: unlike the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Oratory has now replaced its stolen art masterpiece with a refined replica; like the Gardner Museum, the Oratory has updated security: Museo Italiani, via Facebook Nov. 28, 2014, @ https://www.facebook.com/MuseoItalia/posts/pfbid02Rfat6jeaBCT8wG1TqCzDAp3mTNLwqniQwHXxJRecgqE7Bb3YF2An9T413Lgq9pcil/;
Museo Italiani, via Facebook Nov. 28, 2014, @ https://www.facebook.com/MuseoItalia/photos/a.555755571172996.1073742059.128222747259616/745022552246296/;
Museo Italiani, via Facebook Nov. 28, 2014, @ https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=745022552246296&set=a.555755571172996

For further information:
"M 6.9 - southern Italy." United States Geological Survey > Science > Science Explorer > Earthquake Hazards Program > Earthquakes > Significant Earthquakes Archive > Earthquake Lists, Maps & Statistics > Significant Earthquakes - 1980.
Available @ https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usp0001ay4#executive
Marriner, Derdriu. 27 October 2017. "Caravaggio Nativity Art Theft October 1969 Has a Casualty or Survivor?" Earth and Space News Blog. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/10/caravaggio-nativity-art-theft-october.html
"Italy: Avellino, Potenza, Castera, Naples." National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration > National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service > National Centers for Environmental Information > Natural Hazards > Significant Earthquake Database.
Available @ https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/nndc/struts/results?eq_0=4903&t=101650&s=13&d=22,26,13,12&nd=display
Musei Italiani. 20 November 2013. "L'oratorio di San Lorenzo è situato nella città di Palermo dove si trovano ancora molti oratori che sorsero tra la fine del Seicento e il secolo successivo." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/MuseoItalia/photos/a.555755571172996.1073742059.128222747259616/745022552246296/
Poole, Robert M. July 2005. "Ripped from the Walls (and the Headlines)." Smithsonian Magazine > Arts & Culture > Art > Art Crimes.
Available @ http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/ripped-from-the-walls-and-the-headlines-74998018/
Schütze, Sebastian. 2017. Caravaggio: Complete Works. Cologne, Germany: Taschen.
Watson, Peter. 1984. The Caravaggio Conspiracy: A True Story of Deception, Theft, and Smuggling in the Art World. New York NY: Penguin/Doubleday.


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