Four stolen paintings found in Corsica Automatic translate

Four paintings of great value, which were stolen on February 19, 2011 at the Museum of Fine Arts in Ajaccio on the island of Corsica, were found intact yesterday afternoon in a city parking lot. “The works are in excellent condition, they were discovered on Friday at 7 pm in a parking lot located at the northern exit of Ajaccio, after receiving an anonymous call to the judge in charge of the case,” said prosecutor Thomas Pison.

The works discovered are “Pentecost,” Mariotto di Nardo; "Madonna and Child" by Bellini; Midas at Birth by Nicolas Poussin, as well as a canvas by an unknown Italian author of the sixteenth century. The paintings belong to the Museum of Fine Arts, which houses the second largest collection of Italian painting after the Louvre.

The night guard (Anthony M.) was arrested on February 21, 2011, two days after the disappearance of the work. He surrendered to the police after confessing to the theft. In an interview with France-3, Anthony said that he worked for 40 years as a watchman in a museum, and the theft of paintings was a way of pressure on the authorities to stop his eviction from the house where he lives. He said that during the working day he was able to turn off the alarm, calmly carried out the paintings and hid them in his car, parked on a deserted road in the suburbs of Ajaccio. Immediately after his speech on TV, he went to the police station. The car was found with broken glass and there were no works of art in it. The police department then noted some inconsistencies in the testimonies and hypothesized that the guard may have accomplices.

On May 4, 2012, Judge Charlotte Dauriak received an anonymous call and immediately sent the police investigator to the parking lot, who found the paintings. The canvases were against the wall, one of them was wrapped in a plastic bag, the prosecutor said at a press conference. The works are now in the court of Ajaccio and will be returned to the museum on Monday.

bp