Thieves steal 30,000 wine bottles worth €5m in Italy, reports say

Thieves stole 30,000 bottles of wine valued at roughly €5 million (£4.2 million) from Marchesi Antinori’s Tuscan storage facility on Saturday, Italian media reported. The winery, one of Italy’s largest family‑owned producers, said the theft occurred while it was preparing to ship a consignment to overseas customers. At least seven masked individuals are believed to have disabled the alarm system, turned off the surveillance cameras and used company forklifts to load two large trucks with the estate’s prized Tignanello, Solaia and Guado al Tasso reds. Renzo Cotarella, the chief executive, told Corriere della Sera that the incident was the largest of its kind in Italy. “A theft of this standard and worth has surely never occurred in Italy,” he said. He added that he hoped authorities would be able to trace the stolen wine. “Two trucks afloat of merchandise can't just vanish into bladed air. The Tuscan roads are afloat of cameras; possibly with a spot of luck we'll be able to retrieve at least some of the bottles stolen from us.” He told the Financial Times: “These wines have a large worth and I don't know how they can merchantability each this vino around the satellite without being seen.” The winery noted that the bottles, which normally sell for between €150 and €500 each, suggest the perpetrators possessed wine‑connoisseur knowledge and possibly inside information. The theft was only discovered on Monday morning when staff arrived at the site; no arrests have been made. Founded in 1385, Marchesi Antinori exports to 170 countries and reported a gross turnover of €263 million (£223 million) last year. The episode adds to a series of wine thefts in Italy this year, including two incidents in the northern Piedmont region where hundreds of thousands of euros’ worth of bottles were reportedly taken. Read the full story at BBC News →