A Valuable 17th-Century Painting Saved From Getting Stolen After The Italy Police Acted Strategically

A beautiful piece of art by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, a Flemish artist was eyed by the thieves in Rome. This artwork, “The Crucifixion” was present in the Roman church, Santa Maria Maddalena where the thieves were able to enter with a strategic plan. They had everything set and used the priest’s lunchtime to their advantage.

They jumped to the opportunity of no one present inside the church which of course, they knew in advance as they came planned. The antique painting was kept in a showcase for safeguarding it from any external threat as it was definitely of high value. But the thieves didn’t hesitate a bit from breaking that protection before they had uninterrupted access to “The Crucifixion”.

They accomplished their mission in the least amount of time and ran away in a car which was noticed by a person living nearby. He was quick to notice the odd situation of the church like the door being left open during that time. He immediately called a warning signal and sounded the alarm.

The robbers might have celebrated their victory of stealing such an expensive piece of art but there was something else going on in the city regarding this robbery. That painting they had stolen was just not an original but a copy. Hard luck!

This was possible because of the alertness of the military police of Italy, the carabinieri. They had a hint of this burglary and hence, were well-prepared for what might come. The first order of action is keeping the original painting out of the reach of the thieves which they did! They smartly replaced it by a copy which the thieves took without suspecting anything.

This plan had the involvement of the church priest and a mayor of the local area apart from the Carabinieri, of course. All of these did have a worried look on their faces after the robbery as they could not let anyone know the reality this soon.

But the media did report the true story after some time and everything was revealed. It is a thing of pride that they were able to protect this precious work of art from a threat which they had seen coming towards them!

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