Mafia pentito reveals new details on Caravaggio's stolen Nativity

Gaetano Grado, a former Cosa Nostra member turned state witness, has provided new testimony about the 1969 theft of Caravaggio's 'Nativity with Sts. Lawrence and Francis of Assisi' from the Oratorio di San Lorenzo in Palermo. According to Grado, the painting was initially stolen by petty criminals; the Mafia later acquired it after the news caused a sensation. The work then passed through the hands of Gaetano Badalamenti, also linked to Cosa Nostra, who allegedly sold it through a Swiss antiquarian in Palermo. The painting was likely cut into pieces for transport abroad. The buyer's identity remains unknown. Separately, a Claude Monet painting, 'Water Lilies: Reflection of Willows' (1916), was discovered in 2016 in the Louvre's storage by a young French researcher. The work, a preparatory study for the series at the Musée de l'Orangerie, had belonged to Japanese businessman Matsukata. It was seized by the French government during WWII as enemy property, formally returned in 1959, but its whereabouts were lost until now. The damaged canvas will be restored and exhibited in Tokyo in 2019.