Thieves stole about 30,000 bottles of some of Italy’s most prized wines, worth an estimated $5.8 million, from a Tuscan winery, in what the producer described Friday as the country’s largest-ever wine theft.
The theft targeted the Marchesi Antinori establishment near Cortona, in the province of Arezzo, where a group of at least seven thieves stole bottles of some of Italy’s most sought-after wines on Saturday evening, including Solaia, Tignanello and Guado al Tasso.
The theft was discovered Monday, but the company made it public Friday to avoid interfering with the investigation.
General manager Renzo Cotarella said the thieves disabled the winery’s alarm system and surveillance cameras before entering with two large trucks.
Using company forklifts, they loaded the vehicles with wine and fled into the night.
“This is certainly a very well-prepared gang,” Cotarella said, adding that it may be the same group that has targeted other Italian wineries in recent months. “A theft of such magnitude and value has never taken place in Italy.”
The stolen bottles all came from the 2023 vintage and are generally sold at a public price of between 150 euros and 500 euros each.
Among them were around 10,000 bottles of Solaia, one of Antinori’s flagship wines, from what Cotarella described as an exceptional year.
The company, founded in 1385 and run by the Antinori family for 26 generations, said it was alerting its customers around the world to be wary of offers outside official sales channels.
“We inform our customers around the world and ask them to pay attention to any offers outside of official channels,” Cotarella said.
Authorities are investigating how the stolen wine could be sold. Police and carabinieri are examining surveillance footage and other evidence.
Cotarella said he remained confident that investigators could trace the shipment, noting that it would be difficult to move two truckloads of wine without attracting attention.
This theft dwarfs previous high-profile wine thefts in Italy.
In 2017, thieves stole around 2,000 bottles of rare wine worth 750,000 euros from a warehouse near the Adriatic resort of Cervia.
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