30,000 bottles of Antinori wine worth about €5m stolen from Tuscan storage facility

Mixed · 2Thieves stole about 30,000 bottles of premium wine worth about €5m from a Marchesi Antinori storage facility in Tuscany last weekend, according to the company and Italian media. 1 2 Mixed · 2Antinori said surveillance footage showed seven masked men entering the facility, which Reuters places in Cortona, and disabling the alarms before loading the wine onto two trucks. The BBC adds that the cameras were disabled and company forklifts were used. 2 1 Mixed · 2The stolen wines were Tignanello, Solaia and Guado al Tasso. Antinori said 8,000 to 10,000 of the bottles were Solaia. The bottles usually sell for between €150 and €500 each, though Reuters says some of the rarest vintages can fetch thousands of euros. 2 1

Mixed · 2The theft was discovered on Monday morning when staff arrived. It is being investigated by Italian police, and the BBC reports that no arrests have been made. 2 1 Mixed · 2Antinori said the timing and execution pointed to a highly organised group. It added that the wines had been prepared for shipment to foreign distributors, which let the thieves remove many high-value bottles quickly. The company also believes the choice of bottles suggests the thieves were connoisseurs with inside knowledge. 2 1 Mixed · 2Chief executive Renzo Cotarella told Corriere della Sera that no theft of this scale and value had occurred in Italy before. He said he hoped to recover at least some bottles because two truckloads cannot vanish and Tuscan roads are full of cameras. Antinori has also warned customers worldwide to be wary of offers outside official sales channels. 1 2

Mixed · 2Antinori was founded in 1385, exports to 170 countries and had revenue of €263m last year. Reuters calls it Italy's largest family-run winemaker, while the BBC calls it one of the biggest. The theft follows others in Italy this year, including one in July at the Banfi winery in Montalcino and two in Piedmont. 1 2