Aristocrat stole artworks from homes of friends
To his aristocratic friends in Venice, Count Cristiano Barozzi was ‘‘one of us’’, the descendant of a noble lineage stretching back eight centuries.
At their palazzi and luxurious villas, the 70-year-old count was a welcome guest and would show a keen interest in the paintings hanging on their walls.
The reason for such fascination was not, it is now alleged, an appreciation of the artworks but rather an assessment of how best to steal them.
Barozzi, who holds the title Prince of Santorini, is suspected of being the leader of a gang of thieves who ingeniously snatched 41 paintings, along with antiques and precious furnishings from the homes of his well-heeled friends.
In an elaborate scam that could have come straight from the plot of the film, The Thomas Crown Affair, investigators believe that, having identified a target, Barozzi would take a digital photograph of the painting, produce a close copy and replace the original with it.
The thefts are alleged to have continued for a decade, during which time none of the paintings’ owners realised they had been robbed.
According to police, Barozzi targeted artworks hanging in poorly lit areas where the copies would not be noticed.
The aristocrat’s fellow gang members are alleged to be two Sri Lankan butlers who worked for the victims: Claudio Mella, a consultant with the regional monuments and fine arts agency, who allegedly identified the paintings and then advised Barozzi on selling them, and Claudio Celadin, an expert in digital photography.
In a few months last year, five thefts netted the thieves more than 1m (NZ$1.65M). The stolen artworks were predominantly painted by the schools of Old Masters rather than by the masters themselves because they are easier to sell on the black market.
Fourteen paintings alone were taken from the Casetta Rossa, a property on Venice’s Grand Canal. A further nine, valued at a total of 250,000, vanished from a palazzo close to St Mark’s Square. Just 12 of the stolen artworks have so far been recovered.
The inquiry began when one of the butlers, already under investigation for another alleged crime, confessed to his involvement.