Italian winery loses €5m worth of wine in Tuscany heist

Summarised from 2 outlets · Updated 9 Oct, 10:37 · Archive

Thieves stole 30,000 bottles of wine worth about €5m from Marchesi Antinori, a prestigious Italian winery, in a raid on its storage facility in Tuscany on Saturday. At least seven masked men deactivated alarms, disabled cameras and used company forklifts to load two large trucks with bottles of the company's Tignanello, Solaia and Guado al Tasso Tuscan reds. The theft was only discovered on Monday morning when staff arrived on site.

Renzo Cotarella, the chief executive, told Corriere della Sera that this was the largest theft of its kind in Italy. The selected bottles, which usually sell for between €150 and €500 each, suggest the thieves were wine connoisseurs with inside knowledge. Cotarella told the Financial Times that the wine would be difficult to sell without being noticed: '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.'

Marchesi Antinori, founded in 1385, exports to 170 countries and had revenue of €263m last year. No arrests have been made.

How it is being reported

• Thieves steal 30,000 wine bottles worth €5m in Italy, reports sayThe heist at the Florence-based winery is believed to be one of the largest thefts of its kind in Italy.BBC News · 9 Oct, 10:09
• Famous Italian winery loses 30,000 bottles worth €5mn in heistAntinori says it hopes to ‘protect the market’ by alerting potential buyersFinancial Times · 9 Oct, 05:00

In this story: Marchesi Antinori · Tuscany · Renzo Cotarella · Italy

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