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Thieves in Italy took off with a €5 million haul consisting of 30,000 wine bottles after targeting a prestigious winemaker in Tuscany last weekend, Italian media reported.
A group of at least seven individuals carried out the heist at a winery belonging to the Marchesi Antinori company in Cortona, making away with bottles of Solaia, Tignanello, and Guado al Tasso, per a report in the Corriere della Sera newspaper.
The report said the thieves arrived in two large trucks and had deactivated the alarm system and disabled cameras at the site.
Renzo Cotarella, CEO of Marchesi Antinori, told the outlet that the gang appeared to be “well prepared.”
“Perhaps it is the same group that has targeted other wineries in Italy over the past few months. One thing is certain – a theft of this scale and value has never occurred in Italy,” he continued.
The executive was nevertheless confident that at least some of the bottles could be recovered.
“Two trucks full of goods cannot simply disappear into thin air,” he said, adding that the “roads in Tuscany are covered with cameras.”
The thieves are thought to have taken up to 10,000 bottles of Solaia during the robbery, a particularly sought after label that was first produced by the Antinori family in 1978. The wine is produced only in exceptional vintage years, when harvests and grape quality meet the producer’s exacting standards. The wine costs hundreds of euros a bottle.
Antinori dates back to 1385 and is one of Italy’s most renowned winemakers.
The company has reportedly warned customers to look out for offers of its wines coming from outside of official channels.