The seventeenth-century painting “The Presentation of Mary at the Temple”, stolen by unknown persons on the night of 8 May 2009 from the church of Passera, a hamlet of Stresa (Verbano-Cusio-Ossola), has been recovered in Germany, more than fifteen years after it was stolen.
The large painting, over two meters tall and by an unknown artist, was for sale on the website of the German auction house Hampel, with a starting price of 30 thousand euros . The investigation, conducted by the Verbania prosecutor Gianluca Periani, involved the Carabinieri of the cultural heritage protection units of Turin, Cagliari and Genoa and the military of the judicial police section of the Verbania prosecutor's office.
The discovery dates back to December 2023, when a carabiniere from Cagliari, monitoring the online catalogue of the German house, noticed similarities between a work that was about to be sold at auction and the photographs of the painting stolen in Stresa, saved in the database of stolen cultural goods . A year later the painting was seized by the Bavarian police and today, during a ceremony in Verbania, returned to the diocese of Novara.
The position of the last owner, a 66-year-old originally from the province of Rome, is being examined by investigators.
Over the years the canvas, which in the meantime has also been restored and will soon return to the church of Passera, has changed owners several times.
"We have largely reconstructed the chain of owners, but not yet from the moment of the theft," explained the commander of the TPC unit of Turin, Major Ferdinando Angeletti.
The painting, explained the parish priest of Stresa, Don Gian Luca Villa, «was donated by the Borromeo family and among the figures portrayed there is also the Countess Isabella d'Adda, wife of Charles III Borromeo».
"Thank you - the words of Monsignor Fausto Cossalter, vicar general of the diocese of Novara - because you are giving back a piece of life to the community."
