Caravaggio Nativity Art Theft and Caravaggio Nativity Copy Art Theft

Summary: The well-known Caravaggio Nativity art theft Oct. 18, 1969, has a little known successor in the Caravaggio Nativity copy art theft after Christmas 1986.

Noel Baron with her carefully created life-size copy of Caravaggio's Nativity; the ballerina and Caravaggio enthusiast's 1986 Christmas gift to the Archdiocese of Palermo, intended to heal the "people of Palermo" through placement in "the spot of the original" that had been stolen Oct. 18, 1969: Barry Baron, Press Release, via Wave Our Flag

A photograph from a slide of 1968 by Enzo Brai and a facsimile from Factum Arte since 2016 attest to the absence of a masterpiece, the Caravaggio Nativity, from its empty frame.

Installation ceremonies Dec. 12, 2016, of the digitized reproduction brought to the forefront a second misplacement or a second theft near or around the same premises. A life-size copy completed by Christmas 1986 for the Archdiocese of Palermo came after the Brai photograph and before the Madrid- and Rome-based Factum Arte facsimile. It derived from the love of ballerina Noel Baron (Jan. 6, 1952-July 6, 2006) for artworks by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (Sept. 29, 1571-July 18, 1610).

The Baron copy emerges as its artist's self-described "greatest achievement" and expresses the "sacred promise" of exhibition by the Archdiocese, overseer of the Caravaggio Nativity's home.

Barry and Lynn Baron furnish space in their Mission Bay Park residence and neighboring, separate gallery for their sister's artworks and the Nativity copy's paper trail.

Paper trails generate 20 years of correspondence and documents gathered in the midst of almost 50 reproductions by the Joffrey Ballet Prima Ballerina turned self-taught painter. They hold correspondence with Gerlando Butti, Italian consulate director in Los Angeles, California, and Senior Special Agent Charles Koczka of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. They include correspondence of the La Jolla-based artist with Archbishop Salvatore Pappalardo (Sept. 23, 1918-Dec. 10, 2006) and with Peter Watson, author of The Caravaggio Conspiracy.

The shipping bill for $172.50 and written acknowledgment of receipt joins the written agreement for display in the mystery of the Caravaggio Nativity copy art theft.

Paper trails for Noel Baron's missing masterpiece, a careful reproduction of Caravaggio's stolen Nativity, include correspondence with intellectual historian Peter Watson, author of The Caravaggio Conspiracy; Peter Watson at iFest (International Festival and Conference), Barcelona, Catalonia, northwestern Spain, Friday, July 11, 2008, 10:17:35: David Alcubierre (Kedume), CC BY SA 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

Paper trails keep testament to Baron's motives in painting masterpieces in general and in reproducing the Caravaggio Nativity in particular and witness to the Archdiocese's reactions.

Her father Carl Baron's career as illustrator and print shop operator and encouragement of his children's touring Washington, D.C.'s National Gallery of Art launched Baron's artistry. Lynn mentioned her sister's promise as an eleven-year-old, "These paintings aren't going anywhere. No one else will ever own them. I'm going to paint my own." She noted the 34-year-old's "hope that this gift will bring you and the people of Palermo much happiness, faith, and peace for many years to come."

Baron archives offer the cardinal's assistant's observation on Baron's "exact copy, which will be placed, in the spot of the original in the next few days."

Transportation strikes put Baron just under 20 miles (32.19 kilometers) from the Oratory, whose staff's 14-year, inexplicable silence put her on the flight home in 2001.

Danielle Carrabino, associate research curator at Harvard Art Museums, and Pierfrancesco Palazzotto, Archdiocese museum assistant director, question Baron's copy ever queuing along Archdiocese and Oratory walls. Informants and photographs recall the Caravaggio Nativity art theft casualty whereas nobody in Palermo remembers either the Baron copy or the Caravaggio Nativity copy art theft. Family archives show Baron's, an agent's, a cardinal's assistant's, a consul's and Palermo carabinieri's (military police's) written interactions whereas the Archdiocese and Oratory suddenly show nothing.

Who took Noel Baron's 9- by 7-foot (2.74- by 2.13-meter) copy of the Caravaggio Nativity for the Oratory of San Lorenzo's altar wall in Palermo, Sicily?

A portrait of Archbishop Salvatore Pappalardo, with whom Noel Baron corresponded, marks his burial vault in the Cathedral of Palermo's Chapel of Santa Cristina; yet Noel Baron's 1986 Christmas gift is nowhere on display, not in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Palermo's cathedral church, not in the Oratorio of San Lorenzo; Monday, Feb. 25, 2008, 11:29: Giacomo Augusto, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

Noel Baron with her carefully created life-size copy of Caravaggio's Nativity; the ballerina and Caravaggio enthusiast's 1986 Christmas gift to the Archdiocese of Palermo, intended to heal the "people of Palermo" through placement in "the spot of the original" that had been stolen Oct. 18, 1969: Barry Baron, Press Release, via Wave Our Flag @ http://waveourflag.com/caravaggio_press_release.html

Paper trails for Noel Baron's missing masterpiece, a careful reproduction of Caravaggio's stolen Nativity, include correspondence with intellectual historian Peter Watson, author of The Caravaggio Conspiracy; Peter Watson at iFest (International Festival and Conference), Barcelona, Catalonia, northwestern Spain, Friday, July 11, 2008, 10:17:35: David Alcubierre (Kedume), CC BY SA 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/kedume/2660971919/

A portrait of Archbishop Salvatore Pappalardo, with whom Noel Baron corresponded, marks his burial vault in the Cathedral of Palermo's Chapel of Santa Cristina; yet Noel Baron's 1986 Christmas gift is nowhere on display, not in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Palermo's cathedral church, not in the Oratorio of San Lorenzo; Monday, Feb. 25, 2008, 11:29: Giacomo Augusto, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ritratto_del_card._Pappalardo-Pappalardo.jpg

For further information:

Ancestry.com. 2011. "Noel Baron in the U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014." U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc.
Available @ http://search.ancestrylibrary.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?_phsrc=xfu27&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&gss=angs-g&new=1&rank=1&msT=1&gsfn=noel&gsfn_x=1&gsln=baron&gsln_x=1&msddy=2006&gskw=ballerina&catbucket=rstp&MSAV=1&MSV=0&uidh=ft7&pcat=ROOT_CATEGORY&h=88717056&recoff=5%206&dbid=3693&indiv=1&ml_rpos=1

Baron, Barry. 23 February 2016. "Another 'Caravaggio' Has Gone Missing." WaveOurFlag.com > Media > Noel.
Available @ http://www.waveourflag.com/page13.html

Dibono, Misha. 17 March 2016. "La Jolla Artist's Painting at Heart of International Art Theft Mystery." Fox 5 San Diego > News.
Available @ http://fox5sandiego.com/2016/03/17/missing-art-mystery/

Marriner, Derderiu. 17 November 2017. "Caravaggio Nativity Art Theft: A Facsimile Until the Original's Return." Earth and Space News Blog. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/11/caravaggio-nativity-art-theft-facsimile.html

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.

Wave Our Flag. "Caravaggio Artist Noel Baron." YouTube. Feb. 4, 2014.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gc_LgPlwyg

Wilkens, John. 12 March 2016. "Copy of Stolen Masterpiece Also Vanished." The San Diego Union-Tribune > Entertainment > Visual Arts.
Available @ http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/entertainment/visual-arts/sdut-caravaggio-nativity-reproduction-2016mar12-story.html

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

Caravaggio Nativity Art Theft: Destruction by Fire, Heroin, Pigs, Rats

Summary: The Caravaggio Nativity art theft Oct. 18, 1969, in Palermo, Sicily, ends badly if the masterpiece really expired amid flames, heroin, pigs or rats.

Mafia pentiti (penitents) confess to dreadful destruction scenarios for Caravaggio's Nativity, stolen from Palermo, Sicily's Oratory of San Lorenzo in 1969; the oratory's tranquil courtyard: the oratory's tranquil courtyard: Effems, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

Two informants arrived at destruction by fire as the outcome of the Caravaggio Nativity art theft Oct. 18, 1969, whereas another informant associated the painting's destruction with a badly buried, booty-filled chest.

Francesco Marino Mannoia, one of the informants called pentiti (penitent informers), brought personal perspectives as the self-confessed, in 1996, of two Caravaggio Nativity art theft perpetrators. He confessed to cutting with a razor blade, folding, gashing in an elevator door and incinerating the canvas because of the ideator's bemoaning and canceling consignment.

Roberto Conforti, Carabinieri (Military Police) Art Squad Commandant, declared, "This is the first time that a pentito has admitted to being the author of this crime." General Conforti, carabiniere since 1961 and art investigations chief retired since 2002, emphasized, "We have a confession. Now we have to see if it is trustworthy."

Mafia pentito Francesco Marino Mannoia (nickname: Mozzarella) is a self-confessed gasher and incinerator of the stolen Caravaggio Nativity; Mannoia under arrest by two policemen, New Year's Day, Tuesday, Jan. 1, 1980: Enzo Brai/Mondadori Portfolio, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Caravaggio scholar Maurizio Marini (Nov. 4, 1942-Aug. 3, 2011) found "something fishy" since "Even a chicken thief knows that paintings should be rolled and not folded." He gave in explanation, "It could be true that he was one of the underdogs who stole the painting, but I don't think it was destroyed."

Peter Robb, Australian-born author of M: The Man Who Became Caravaggio and of Midnight in Sicily, has the same outlook as one of General Conforti's officers. The Art Work Protection Unit officer indicates, "He [Francesco Mannoia] didn't lie. He just remembered wrongly. Another painting was stolen in Palermo around the same time." He judges that "That's the one he took, the one that was ruined" sometime around the perpetration of the Caravaggio Nativity art theft Oct. 17-18, 1969.

Mafia pentito Gaspare Spatuzza has linked Caravaggio Nativity theft with Mafia bosses: Blitz quotidiano @BlitzQuotidiano, via Twitter Sep. 30, 2014

Fiery destruction after brutal takeaways and rough hideaways kindled the Caravaggio Nativity art theft-related account by Gaspare Spatuzza, pentito from Brancaccio, traditional working-class quarter within Palermo.

Spatuzza, like Salvatore Cancemi (March 19, 1942-Jan. 14, 2011), Cupola (dome literally, Sicilian Mafia Commission culturally) member and subsequent pentito, linked the Nativity with Mafia bosses. Both pentiti mentioned the top bosses as maintaining the Caravaggio Nativity propped against a wall during the meetings of the Sicilian Mafia Commission into the 1980s.

Spatuzza noted the painting's nestling into a barn, where neglect netted the barn-themed oil on canvas getting "ruined, eaten by rats and hogs, and therefore burned." He offered as the location of the demise of the only Caravaggio Nativity art theft casualty a barn of the Palermo-based clan of Giovan Battista Pullarà.

Lynda Albertson of Association for Research into Crimes Against Art professes, "I am quite confident that no one left a Caravaggio in a barn with pigs." The Rome-based organization's Chief Executive Officer quips, "You might do that if you are a crazy person, but this was a bit more organized than that."

A third reconstruction rolls the masterpiece into a carpet within a chest replete with 11.02 pounds (5 kilograms) of heroin and millions of euros in cash. No Carabinieri-organized search yet supports burial of the destroyed Nativity in a cash-filled, drug-stuffed chest on alleged trafficker Gerlando Alberti's (Sept. 18, 1927-Feb. 1, 2012) property.

Giovanni Pastore, Carabinieri Art Squad Colonel and Vice-Commandant retired since 2011, treats Caravaggio Nativity art theft casualty destructions as non-evidential and hideaways in Italy as likely.

Could the stolen Caravaggio Nativity be enclosed in a cash-filled, drug-stuffed chest on the property of Gerlando Alberti, a member of Cosa Nostra's Porta Nuova family in Palmero? Nicknamed U Paccarè (the imperturbable one), he is credited with saying, "Mafia? What is that? A kind of cheese?"; Gerlando Alberti at a Mafia trial in the 1970s: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

Mafia pentiti (penitents) confess to dreadful destruction scenarios for Caravaggio's Nativity, stolen from Palermo, Sicily's Oratory of San Lorenzo in 1969; the oratory's tranquil courtyard: Effems, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:OSL_(Palermo)_16_07_2019_26.jpg

Mafia pentito Francesco Marino Mannoia (nickname: Mozzarella) is a self-confessed gasher and incinerator of the stolen Caravaggio Nativity; Mannoia under arrest by two policemen, New Year's Day, Tuesday, Jan. 1, 1980: Enzo Brai/Mondadori Portfolio, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Francescomannoia.jpg

Mafia pentito Gaspare Spatuzza has linked Caravaggio Nativity theft with Mafia bosses: Blitz quotidiano @BlitzQuotidiano, via Twitter tweet of Sep. 30, 2014, @ https://twitter.com/BlitzQuotidiano/status/516958053544235008

Caravaggio's Nativity with Saint Francis and Saint Lawrence (Natività con i Santi Lorenzo e Francesco d'Assisi): Yorck Project, Public Domian, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Michelangelo_Caravaggio_035.jpg

Could the stolen Caravaggio Nativity be enclosed in a cash-filled, drug-stuffed chest on the property of Gerlando Alberti, a member of Cosa Nostra's Porta Nuova family in Palmero? Nicknamed U Paccarè (the imperturbable one), he is credited with saying, "Mafia? What is that? A kind of cheese?"; Gerlando Alberti at a Mafia trial in the 1970s: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gerlando_Alberti.JPG

For further information:

Blitz quotidiano @BlitzQuotidiano. 30 September 2014. "Gaspare Spatuzza: 'Io responsabile di 40 omicidi, chiedo perdono." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/BlitzQuotidiano/status/516958053544235008

"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. 3 November 2017. "Caravaggio Nativity Art Theft: Deadly Brutal Takeaway, Rough Hideaway." Earth and Space News Blog. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/11/caravaggio-nativity-art-theft-deadly.html

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. "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

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/

Robb, Peter. 2001. M: The Man Who Became Caravaggio. New York NY: Picador.

Robb, Peter. 2007. Midnight in Sicily. New York NY: Picador.

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.

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.

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, Public Domain (CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain), 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; Tuesday, July 4, 2017, image of Sistine Madonna in Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, east central Germany: Елена Гныпа, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

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, Public Domain (CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain), 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

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; Tuesday, July 4, 2017, image of Sistine Madonna in Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, east central Germany: Елена Гныпа, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:“Сикстинская_мадонна”_Рафаэля_Картинная_галерея_старых_мастеров_в_Дрездене.jpg

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.

Caravaggio Nativity Art Theft in Sicily: Unsolved Since October 1969

Summary: The Caravaggio Nativity art theft treats a masterpiece in a way inconsistent with its painter's wishes: away from its intended home and out of public view.

Caravaggio's Nativity with Saint Francis and Saint Lawrence (Natività con i Santi Lorenzo e Francesco d'Assisi): Yorck Project, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Federal Bureau of Investigation assigns the Caravaggio Nativity art theft Oct. 17 to 18, 1969, in Palermo, Italy, top priority on the FBI list of the top 10 unsolved art crimes.

The wayward Natività con i Santi Lorenzo e Francesco d'Assisi brings down to one Nativity-themed oils by Michelangelo Merisi (Sept. 29, 1571-July 18, 1610) for Sicily. The other large-scale, same-themed, same-timed Nativity by the Milanese painter nicknamed Caravaggio still coaxes visits from locals and tourists to its churchly home in Messina, Italy. The Oratorio di San Lorenzo (Oratory of Saint Lawrence), since Dec. 13, 2015, decorates the altarpiece wall with a hi-tech replica by the Milan-based Factum Arte.

The Nativity with St. Francis (Sept. 26, 1181?-Oct. 3, 1226) and St. Lawrence (255-Aug. 10, 258) experiences an almost 50-year exile away from its meetinghouse home.

Oratorio di San Lorenzo (Oratory of Saint Lawrence), which housed Caravaggio's stolen Nativity, is located on Via Immacolatella, near Chiesa di San Francesco d'Assisi (center) in Palermo's historic Kalsa quarter; Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2009, 16:23: CarlesVA, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Cloudy, dark, noisy weather around a decrepit landmark abandoned during night-time hours, accessed by narrow streets and attended by an elderly guard furnish the crime scene.

The Caravaggio Nativity art theft crime scene and police record gather means- and perpetrator-related clues from an empty frame giving witness to a gouged-out, large painting. The 105.51-inch- (268-centimeter-) high, 77.56-inch- (197-centimeter-) wide oil hanging on the altarpiece wall has to have been handled by two perpetrators with a getaway car driver.

Giovanni Pastore of the Italian military police's art squad indicates that "It is a fact that the canvas was taken from its frame" and rolled up. He judges that "Therefore the act was committed with a cutter, or even with a razor blade" even though knife-wielding perpetrators also join commonly listed means.

Prior to December 2015 installation of replica created by Adam Lowe of Factum Arte, an empty frame attests to October 1969 art theft 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: Amrita, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The police, the press and the public know of one suspected perpetrator through the confession Jan. 2, 1996, of the pentito (repentant) mafia member nicknamed Mozzarella.

The testimony of Francesco Marino Mannoia, Mafia ex-member looked upon as a reliable government witness, lists himself as one of two Caravaggio Nativity art theft perpetrators. Its mention of a painting so mangled during removal and transport as to make destruction, not restoration, the only logical outcome mixes with other pentito memories. Charlie Hill of Scotland Yard's art unit notes "The story probably means that the picture is in terrible shape but capable of being returned and restored."

Adam Lowe of Factum Arte observes that "Losing it [the $20 million painting] throws off the entire scheme of the chapel" and its stucco-decorated, white-painted interior.

Lynda Albertson of Rome's Association for Research into Crimes against Art likewise propounds Mafia involvement since "it is often used as collateral for other illicit activity." Passing time qualifies Caravaggio's Nativity for retrieval since "It is difficult to get these objects back, but often it does happen 30 or 40 years later."

Colonel Roberto Conforti of the Italian military police's art squad reveals the different perspective that "It's more likely that it was stolen for a private collector." He suggests for the wayward Caravaggio Nativity "forgotten [whereabouts] in the attic of some old lady who doesn't know its worth" in or near Palermo.

Resolution of the Caravaggio Nativity art theft takes a masterpiece of honest figures, lit-up shadow and thick brushstrokes back to its intended home since its creation.

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

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

Caravaggio's Nativity with Saint Francis and Saint Lawrence (Natività con i Santi Lorenzo e Francesco d'Assisi): Yorck Project, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Michelangelo_Caravaggio_035.jpg

Oratorio di San Lorenzo (Oratory of Saint Lawrence), which housed Caravaggio's stolen Nativity, is located on Via Immacolatella, near Chiesa di San Francesco d'Assisi (center) in Palermo's historic Kalsa quarter; Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2009, 16:23: CarlesVA, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crèsia_di_San_Franciscu_d'Assisi_2.jpg

Prior to December 2015 installation of replica created by Adam Lowe of Factum Arte, an empty frame attests to October 1969 art theft 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: Amrita, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons: Amrita, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oratorio_di_San_Lorenzo.JPG

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

For further information:

Bohlen, Celestine. 8 November 1996. "Mafia and a Lost Caravaggio Stun Andreotti Trial." New York Times > World.
Available @ http://www.nytimes.com/1996/11/08/world/mafia-and-a-lost-caravaggio-stun-andreotti-trial.html

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

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

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

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

Squires, Nick. 10 December 2015. "How a Long-Lost Caravaggio Masterpiece Was Recreated, Nearly 50 Years After It Was Stolen." The Telegraph > News > World News > Europe > Italy.
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. 10 December 2015. "How a long-lost Caravaggio masterpiece was recreated, nearly 50 years after it was stolen." Twitter.
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