Thieves have reportedly stolen 30,000 bottles of premium wine worth approximately €5 million from Marchesi Antinori, one of Italy’s largest family-owned wineries, in what its chief executive described as an unprecedented theft.
The incident occurred on Saturday at the company’s storage facility in Tuscany as staff prepared to dispatch a consignment to international customers. The theft was discovered on Monday morning when employees arrived at the site.
Italian media reports said at least seven masked men carried out the operation after allegedly disabling security systems and deactivating alarms. The suspects reportedly used the winery’s forklifts to load two large trucks with bottles of its prized Tignanello, Solaia and Guado al Tasso wines before leaving the premises.
Renzo Cotarella, chief executive of Marchesi Antinori, told Corriere della Sera that the scale of the theft was unprecedented in Italy.
“A theft of this scale and value has certainly never occurred in Italy,” he said.
Cotarella expressed hope that investigators would trace the stolen bottles, noting that transporting such a large quantity of wine would be difficult to conceal.
“Two trucks full of merchandise can’t just disappear into thin air. The Tuscan roads are full of cameras; perhaps with a bit of luck we’ll be able to recover at least some of the bottles stolen from us,” he said.
Speaking to the Financial Times, he also questioned how the thieves intended to sell the wine internationally without attracting attention. The company believes the selection of bottles suggests the suspects had detailed knowledge of its products. The wines reportedly sell for between €150 and €500 per bottle, making the stolen collection particularly valuable.
No arrests had been reported at the time of publication.
