$8 million worth of premium Tuscan wine stolen in brazen overnight heist
The Florence-based winery said security camera footage showed seven masked men breaking into its Cortona storage facility and loading thousands of bottles onto two trucks.
A group of masked thieves stole approximately 30,000 bottles of premium Tuscan wine worth around $8 million from a Marchesi Antinori warehouse in Tuscany, Italy's largest family-run winemaker reported on Friday. The winery, which exports its products to 170 countries, warned customers to be cautious of offers from unofficial sources following the heist and is still optimistic about recovering the stolen wine.
The thieves are believed to have made off with 8,000 to 10,000 bottles of Solaia, Tignanello, and Guado al Tasso, with some of the rarest vintages selling for thousands of euros per bottle. This marks the second large-scale loss of high-profile Italian reserve in the year, following a theft of 3,300 bottles from Banfi winery in Montalcino in July, valued at nearly $160,000.
Security camera footage revealed seven masked men breaking into the Cortona storage facility, disabling alarm systems, and loading thousands of cases of Tuscan red wines onto two trucks. The theft was discovered on Monday by warehouse staff. The Antinori representative stated that the stolen wines were prepared for shipment, making them easily accessible for the thieves.
The CEO of Marchesi Antinori, Renzo Cotarella, suspects the thieves to be highly trained and possibly the same gang responsible for the Banfi incident. He remarked that a theft of this scale and value has never occurred in Italy. Police in Cortona are currently investigating the case but have not made any arrests.
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