Masked thieves have stolen about 30,000 bottles of wine worth roughly €5m (£4.2m) from a storage facility run by Marchesi Antinori, one of Italy's oldest family-owned wineries, in what the company's chief executive describes as the largest wine theft ever recorded in the country.
Thieves struck on Saturday as the company was preparing to ship a consignment to customers abroad. At least seven masked men are believed to have deactivated the alarms, disabled the cameras and used the winery's own forklifts to load two large trucks with prized Tignanello, Solaia and Guado al Tasso Tuscan reds, according to Italian media reports.
The theft was only discovered on Monday morning when staff arrived at the Tuscany facility. No arrests have been made.
Renzo Cotarella, the chief executive, told Corriere della Sera that a theft of this scale and value had "certainly never occurred in Italy." He said he was hopeful the authorities would trace the stolen wine, adding: "Two trucks full of merchandise can't just disappear into thin air. The Tuscan roads are full of cameras; perhaps with a bit of luck we'll be able to recover at least some of the bottles stolen from us."
He told the Financial Times: "These wines have a great value and I don't know how they can sell all this wine around the world without being seen."
The selection of bottles, which usually sell for between €150 and €500 each, has led the company to believe the thieves were wine connoisseurs with inside knowledge.
Marchesi Antinori was founded in 1385 and exports to 170 countries, reporting revenue of €263m (£223m) last year. The theft follows a spate of wine thefts in Italy this year, including two in the northern Piedmont region where bottles worth hundreds of thousands of euros were reportedly taken.
Analysis
Why This Matters
- The heist shows how vulnerable high-value, portable goods such as fine wine are to organised theft, even at a major producer with security systems in place.
- The apparent targeting of premium Super Tuscan labels points to a sophisticated operation with inside knowledge, raising questions about security across the wine supply chain.
- The theft is part of a wider spate of wine crime in Italy this year, suggesting premium wine is becoming a preferred target for criminals.
Background
Marchesi Antinori is among Italy's most storied winemaking families, and its Tignanello and Solaia labels helped define the Super Tuscan category that brought international acclaim to the region's wines. Fine wine is a difficult commodity for thieves to sell openly, since distinctive vintages can be identified through bottles, labels and production records, yet the high value and portability of premium bottles make them an attractive target. The company describes the scale of this loss as unprecedented in Italy.
Key Perspectives
Marchesi Antinori, via CEO Renzo Cotarella: The company believes the selection of bottles shows the thieves had connoisseur-level knowledge, possibly from inside the operation, and is hopeful that cameras on Tuscan roads will help authorities trace the two trucks.
Italian authorities: Police are investigating and no arrests have been made. The coordinated nature of the raid, with alarms deactivated and cameras disabled, means the investigation is likely to focus on how the thieves obtained inside information.
Sceptics of a quick recovery: Cotarella himself has questioned how the stolen wine could be sold worldwide without being detected. Moving tens of thousands of distinctive bottles through legitimate channels would be difficult, which may push the wine toward private sales or export markets where tracing is harder.
What to Watch
- Whether police trace the two trucks using roadside camera footage, which Cotarella has urged them to pursue.
- Whether any of the stolen vintages resurface on auction, private sale or export markets in the coming months.
- Any arrests that could reveal whether the theft was an inside job or orchestrated by a criminal group.