Caravaggio Nativity Art Theft: A Facsimile Until the Original's Return

Summary: A digitally printed, high-quality facsimile temporarily marks the place of the Caravaggio Nativity art theft casualty Oct. 18, 1969, in Palermo, Sicily.

photo of British artist Adam Lowe by Alessandro Gaja: The Telegraph @Telegraph, via Twitter Dec. 11, 2015

A Caravaggio Nativity with Saints Lawrence and Francis adorns the altar of the Oratory of Saint Lawrence in Palermo, Sicily, since almost two months after the 46th anniversary of the original's theft. The facsimile brings back an almost authentic-looking equivalent of the original oil on canvas borne away during a single, sinister, star-crossed, stormy night Oct. 18, 1969. It communicates commitments by local and national governments, private businesses and public agencies to Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (Sept 29, 1571-July 18 1610), the people's painter. Two years after its debut it draws no art crime-related police force or recovery organization to discover the whereabouts of the companion painting to Messina's Caravaggio.

Repositories of great artworks express loss differently, with the exiled Caravaggio Nativity's facsimile emulating the extracted Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art objects' and pieces' place markers.

The facsimile finds itself above the chapel altarpiece in the Oratorio di San Lorenzo amid stucco decorations sculpted by Giacomo Serpotta (March 10, 1652-Feb. 27, 1732). Analyses of brushstrokes, complete- and partial-view photographs and paintings in Rome's Chiesa di San Luigi dei Francesi (Church of Saint Louis of the French) guide it.

All Caravaggio paintings have quick, thick brushstrokes that head perpendicularly across human figures to dark backgrounds and that hasten from the painter's mind palace without mock-ups. The Nativity canvas in Palermo and the three Saint Matthew canvases in Rome invoke contemporaneous completion dates and involve their ideator's hallmark exclusive, red-dominated color palette.

One color slide by Enzo Brai of Arzachena, Sardinia, from 1968 and three black-and-whites from 1951 jump-started the facsimile of the Caravaggio Nativity art theft casualty.

Stucco master Giacomo Serpotta's sculptures surround Caravaggio's Nativity in Oratorio di San Lorenzo: Musei Italiani, via Facebook Nov. 20, 2013

Black-and-whites from Rome's Restoration Institute archives and the 4- by 5-inch (10.16- by 12.7-centimeter) photograph from the Brai slide keep the Caravaggio Nativity's only image-preserved testament.

Adam Lowe, fine art degree-holder from the Ruskin School of Art in Oxford, England, United Kingdom, leads Factum Arte of Madrid, Spain, and Rome, as founder. He mentioned the extremes of dark and of "gauzy luminosity," called chiaroscuro, in the Caravaggio Nativity as manifest through digital printing and non-maintainable through "ordinary" photography. He noted fine-toning colors from 6 gigabytes of data each from the three Saint Matthew canvases so that "we have exact color matching" for Caravaggio reds. His company obtained the Sky television commission for the facsimile since "Losing it [Caravaggio Nativity art theft casualty] throws off the entire scheme of the chapel."

Producing a facsimile "that will look very similar to the original" as "it would appear if the painting was still in the oratory" prompted the commission. Roberto Pisoni, head of Sky Arte HD, further qualifies the facsimile as quickening interest in the late 16th-century oratory "because it really is a wonderful place."

Two years after its installation Dec. 12, 2015, and 48 years after its original's theft, the facsimile remains a crowd-pleaser in a regularly open, restored oratory. Sergio Mattarella, 12th President of Italy since Feb. 3, 2015, sees it vicariously empowering multitudes and stresses "the importance of an object" in its proper place. He treasures the Caravaggio Nativity art theft casualty's facsimile as transitional to the long-awaited "morning, rolled up outside the chapel, the original painting will be left."

Sky Arte HD's digital reconstruction of Caravaggio's stolen Nativity: Factum Arte, via Instagram Aug. 21, 2016

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

photo of British artist Adam Lowe by Alessandro Gaja: The Telegraph @Telegraph, via Twitter Dec. 10, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/Telegraph/status/675206110480048128

empty frame of Nativity with Saint Francis and Saint Lawrence (Natività con i Santi Lorenzo e Francesco d'Assisi) at Oratorio di San Lorenzo (Oratory of Saint Lawrence) in Palermo, Sicily: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oratorio_di_San_Lorenzo.JPG

Stucco master Giacomo Serpotta's sculptures surround Caravaggio's Nativity in Oratorio di San Lorenzo: Musei Italiani, via Facebook Nov. 20, 2013, @ https://www.facebook.com/MuseoItalia/posts/555755591172994/; via Facebook Nov. 20, 2013, @ https://www.facebook.com/MuseoItalia/photos/a.555755571172996.1073742059.128222747259616/555755591172994/

"A #SkyArteFestival è il momento di "Operazione Caravaggio" sulla riproduzione dell'opera "La Natività" di #Caravaggio trafugata a Palermo.": Sky Arte HD @SkyArteHD, via Twitter May 7, 2017, @ https://twitter.com/SkyArteHD/status/861169415454326785

Sky Arte HD's digital reconstruction of Caravaggio's stolen Nativity: Factum Arte, via Instagram Aug. 21, 2016, @ https://www.instagram.com/p/BJXxk_GAhie/

For further information:

Factum Arte @FactumArte. 11 December 2015. "The re-creation of Caravaggio's Nativity realized by Factum Arte will be officially unveiled tomorrow in Palermo!" Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/FactumArte/status/675242763496120320

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

Marriner, Derdriu. 10 November 2017. "Caravaggio Nativity Art Theft: Destruction by Fire, Heroin, Pigs, Rats." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/11/caravaggio-nativity-art-theft.html

Neuendorf, Henri. 11 December 2015. "Caravaggio Masterpiece Stolen in Notorious Mafia Heist Replaced with Replica." Artnet News > Art World > Art and Law.
Available @ https://news.artnet.com/art-world/stolen-caravaggio-replaced-replica-391166

Repubblica TV. "Palermo, il Ritorno del Caravaggio 2.0." video.repubblica.it. Dec. 12, 2015.
Available @ http://video.repubblica.it/edizione/palermo/palermo-il-ritorno-del-caravaggio-20-cosi-e-nato-il-clone-della-nativita-sparita/221886/221093

ru-tamaki @moon8520tw 28 Mar 2016. "Caravaggio's stolen Nativity with St Francis and St Lawrence masterpiece reconstructed." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/moon8520tw/status/714663217407123460

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

Sky Arte (skyarte). 21 August 2016. "Il progetto di 'ri – materializzazione' della Natività di Caravaggio realizzato degli esperti della Factum Arte di Madrid: alle 21.10 su Sky Arte HD ricreiamo l’opera di Caravaggio rubata nel 1969." Instagram.
Available @ https://www.instagram.com/p/BJXxk_GAhie/

Sky Arte HD @SkyArteHD. 7 May 2017. "A #SkyArteFestival è il momento di "Operazione Caravaggio" sulla riproduzione dell'opera "La Natività" di #Caravaggio trafugata a Palermo." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/SkyArteHD/status/861169415454326785

Squires, Nick. "How a Long-Lost Caravaggio Masterpiece Was Recreated, Nearly 50 Years After It Was Stolen." The Telegraph > News > World News > Europe > Italy. Dec. 10, 2015.
Available @ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/12044479/How-a-long-lost-Caravaggio-masterpiece-was-recreated-nearly-50-years-after-it-was-stolen.html

The Telegraph @Telegraph. "How a long-lost Caravaggio masterpiece was recreated, nearly 50 years after it was stolen." Twitter. Dec. 10, 2015.
Available @ https://twitter.com/Telegraph/status/675206110480048128

"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