Category Archives: Italy

Piero della Francesca’s Augustinian altarpiece reassembled after 450 years

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Eight known components of artwork were housed in five different museums in Europe and the US before being reunited in Milan

Eight surviving panels of Piero della Francesca’s Augustinian altarpiece have been reassembled after 450 years, possibly solving one of its enduring mysteries.

The celebrated polyptych was created by the early Italian Renaissance master specifically for the church of the Augustinians at Borgo San Sepolcro (now Sansepolcro) in his home town near Arezzo and comprised 30 panels, the majority of which have gone missing.

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Vodafone to sell Italian business to Swisscom for €8bn

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UK telecoms group says some of proceeds will be returned to investors via share buybacks

Vodafone is selling its Italian business to Swisscom for €8bn (£6.8bn) cash and plans to return €4bn to shareholders.

The telecoms company said it had reached an agreement to sell Vodafone Italy as part of wider plans to streamline its European operations and that some of the proceeds would be returned to investors via share buy-backs. Vodafone will continue to provide certain services to Swisscom for up to five years as part of the transaction.

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Olive oil becomes most wanted item for shoplifters in Spain

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Gangs steal ‘liquid gold’ amid shortages and surging prices after extreme weather damages harvests

Olive oil has become the most stolen product in supermarkets across Spain, with organised criminal gangs targeting the “liquid gold” to resell on the hidden market, according to new figures.

Olive oil is now the most shoplifted product in regions that account for 70% of the country’s population, the Financial Times reports.

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Descendants of King William II’s killer want to donate triptych depicting death to UK museum

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Latin-inscribed artwork tells story of Walter Tirel, whose son killed British monarch

The Italian descendants of King William II’s killer want to donate a work of art partly depicting William’s death to a British museum.

The three-slab triptych is owned by the Tirelli family, whose aristocratic origins can be traced back to France, for over 400 years. They have said they believe it was made by a Norman artist in 1100.

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Two Americans go back on trial in Rome over killing of Italian police officer

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Highest court threw out previous convictions of Finnegan Lee Elder, 24, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 23

A new trial has opened for two American men accused of killing an Italian plainclothes police officer during a botched sting operation after Italy’s highest court threw out their convictions.

Italy’s highest court of cassation ordered a new trial last year, saying it had not been proven beyond reasonable doubt that the defendants, with limited Italian language skills, had understood that they were dealing with Italian police officers when they went to meet an alleged drug dealer in Rome.

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Gold statues and jewellery stolen in €1m heist at museum by Lake Garda

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Items by Italian sculptor Umberto Mastroianni taken from exhibition at Vittoriale degli Italiani estate

Gold statues and jewellery made by the Italian sculptor Umberto Mastroianni have been stolen from an exhibition in northern Italy in a €1m (£850,000) heist.

The 20 gold statues and 30 pieces of jewellery were crafted between the 1950s and 1990s by the artist, who was the uncle of La Dolce Vita film star Marcello Mastroianni.

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Unlucky in love: statue of Shakespeare’s Juliet in Verona damaged by tourists

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Visitors joining in tradition of touching breast of artwork to bring them fortune in relationships have worn hole in it

Tourists in the northern Italian city of Verona have once again created a hole in the right breast of a statue of William Shakespeare’s heroine Juliet.

The bronze statue sits beneath the balcony in a tiny courtyard where Romeo is said to have wooed Juliet, attracting hundreds of visitors each day who flock there for a selfie and to touch the breast as part of a ritual that is believed to bring luck in love.

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‘Extraordinary’: Islamic and Jewish science merge in 11th-century astrolabe

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Instrument was adapted, translated and corrected by Muslim and Jewish users in Spain, north Africa and Italy

Almost exactly a year ago, Federica Gigante was preparing a lecture and searching the internet for a portrait of the 17th-century Italian nobleman and collector Ludovico Moscardo when an altogether different image caught her eye.

The historian’s gaze soon snagged on a photo of a metal disc with a ring at the top that was kept in the same Verona museum as Moscardo’s picture.

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Italian warship forced to shoot down Houthi missile in Red Sea

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Destroyer Caio Duilio, part of the EU shipping protection force, took out weapon when it came within four miles of the vessel

An Italian warship participating in the EU naval protection force in the Red Sea was forced to shoot down a Houthi missile on Saturday in a rare engagement by the country’s navy, which has largely avoided direct action since the second world war.

The incident came as Houthi officials vowed to continue to attack British ships after the UK-owned Rubymar sank on Saturday having taken on water for a fortnight after being hit by one of the group’s missiles.

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Archaeologists find Pompeii fresco depicting Greek mythological siblings

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Phrixus and Helle are depicted in vibrant colours with exquisite artistry in remarkable discovery

In a remarkable discovery at the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, archaeologists have unearthed a fresco depicting the Greek mythological siblings Phrixus and Helle.

Gabriel Zuchtriegel, the director of Pompeii Archaeological Park, described the find as a poignant reflection of history unfolding once more.

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Paolo Taviani, acclaimed director of classic Italian films, dies aged 92

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The film-maker, who won the Palme d’Or for 1977’s Padre Padrone, was a towering presence for more than three decades, creating politically engaged works with his brother Vittorio

The Italian film-maker Paolo Taviani, whose gritty biopic Padre Padrone won top prize at the Cannes film festival, has died aged 92, Rome’s mayor, Roberto Gualtieri, said on Thursday.

For more than three decades Taviani and his brother Vittorio formed one of cinema’s greatest directorial duos. “Paolo Taviani, a great maestro of Italian cinema, leaves us,” Gualtieri said on X. The brothers “directed unforgettable, profound, committed films which entered into the collective imagination and the history of cinema”, Gualtieri added.

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Long-buried Atlas statue raised to guard Temple of Zeus in Sicily once more

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Eight-metre statue dating from fifth century BC restored and assembled piece-by-piece to be displayed in Valley of the Temples

A colossal statue of Atlas that lay buried for centuries among ancient ruins has been reconstructed to take its rightful place among the Greek temples of Agrigento in Sicily, after a 20-year research and restoration project.

The statue, standing at 8 metres (26ft) tall and dating back to the fifth century BC, was one of nearly 38 that adorned the Temple of Zeus, considered the largest Doric temple ever built despite never being completed.

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New trial in Rome of four Egyptians accused over Giulio Regeni killing

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Defendants are being tried in absentia over kidnapping and murder of Italian student in 2016

Four Egyptian security officials have gone back on trial in absentia in Rome on charges related to the kidnap and murder of an Italian student in Cairo.

Giulio Regeni, 28, had been conducting research when he was abducted in January 2016. His body was found nine days later, dumped on the outskirts of the Egyptian capital, bearing extensive signs of torture.

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‘Dust is everywhere’: rare glimpse of how Michelangelo’s David is kept clean

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Florence museum boss compares process to cleaning a bathroom as media are granted privileged access

Michelangelo’s David is recognised as one of the most sublime works in the history of sculpture, but according to the director of Florence’s Accademia Gallery, dusting it is much like cleaning a bathroom.

“You know when you clean a bathroom, you clean and clean and think you’ve done a great job but then you spot some dust and wonder ‘where did that come from?’,” Cecilie Hollberg said on Monday. “This is what it’s like. Dust is everywhere.”

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Gang of alleged armed robbers in their 60s and 70s arrested in Italy

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Six were known to Rome’s criminal underworld for tenacity in carrying out burglaries at post offices

A gang of six alleged robbers in their 60s and 70s known in Rome’s criminal underworld for their tenacity in carrying out a series of armed burglaries at post offices in the city have been arrested by police in Italy.

The gang’s leaders were 70-year-old Italo De Witt, nicknamed “the German”, who became renowned in the mid-1990s after a sophisticated heist of a bank near the Spanish Steps, and a 75-year-old who played the role of lookout.

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Ulez fines scandal: Italian police ‘illegally accessed’ thousands of EU drivers’ data

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Italy’s data protection body investigates claims police shared names and addresses with firm collecting penalties for TfL

The names and addresses of thousands of EU drivers were unlawfully accessed by Italian police and shared with the company that collects Ulez penalties on behalf of Transport for London (TfL), investigators believe.

The Italian data protection authority is investigating claims by Belgium’s government that an unnamed police department misused official powers to pass the personal details of Belgian drivers to Euro Parking Collections, which is employed by TfL to issue fines to enforce London’s low emission zone (Lez) and ultra-low emission zone.

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Italian man removed from UK despite post-Brexit Home Office certificate

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Massimiliano Melargo, who was stopped at airport, has permission to enter and leave UK while awaiting settlement decision

An Italian man has been removed from the UK despite holding a Home Office certificate explicitly stating he has a right to travel in and out of the country while officials process his application to live and work in the country post-Brexit.

Massimiliano Melargo, 27, told how he was detained overnight, separated from his Ukrainian partner, and put on the first plane to Venice by Border Force officials in a step lawyers say contravenes the withdrawal agreement between the EU and the UK.

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Italian court jails people smuggler over shipwreck that killed at least 94 migrants

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Gun Ufuk, 29, sentenced to 20 years in prison over deadly sinking that occurred metres from shore

An Italian court has sentenced a people smuggler to 20 years in prison for involvement in a shipwreck last year that killed at least 94 migrants.

The court in the southern city of Crotone found Gun Ufuk, a 29-year-old Turkish national, guilty of crimes including causing a shipwreck and aiding illegal immigration. It also ordered him to pay a €3m fine and pay damages to civil plaintiffs.

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Italian minister investigated over alleged art theft quits

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Vittorio Sgarbi, who denies allegations over painting, cites separate antitrust investigation in resignation

An Italian art critic who was recently placed under investigation over allegations that a 17th-century painting in his possession was stolen from a castle more than a decade ago has resigned as a junior culture minister.

“I am resigning with immediate effect as undersecretary of the government and will inform [the prime minister, Giorgia] Meloni in the next few hours,” Vittorio Sgarbi said on the sidelines of a conference in Milan.

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Mafia boss who escaped prison using bedsheets recaptured in France

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Marco Raduano broke out of high-security wing of a prison in Sardinia in February 2023

A notorious mafia boss who escaped from a high-security prison in Italy last year using bedsheets has been recaptured in France, according to authorities in both countries.

Marco Raduano, recognized as dangerous on Europol’s list of most wanted criminals, was captured in Bastia on the French island of Corsica, authorities said on Friday.

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