Theft of Caravaggio's 'Nativity' by Sicilian Mafia Remains Unsolved After Decades

Caravaggio's 'Nativity with Saint Francis and Saint Lawrence' was stolen from the Oratory of San Lorenzo in Palermo, Italy, on October 19, 1969. The large canvas, measuring three by two meters, was cut from its frame with a razor. Initial investigations pointed to organized crime involvement, with suspicions falling on Cosa Nostra figures Stefano Bontade and Gaetano Badalamenti as masterminds. In 1996, former mobster Marino Mannoia confessed to participating in the theft as a teenager, claiming the painting was later damaged and possibly destroyed. Another informant, Gaetano Grado, provided corroborating details in 2017. The artwork's disappearance sparked immediate scandal, with writer Leonardo Sciascia criticizing Italy's cultural protection efforts in L'Ora newspaper. Priest Rocco Benedetto, who had opposed a Rai television report on the painting before the theft, later revealed in a 2001 interview released in 2019 that the mafia attempted to negotiate its return through newspaper ads. Instead, he received a fragment of the canvas, likened to a kidnapping victim's severed finger. Despite these accounts, the painting's fate remains unknown, though a faithful replica was created in 2015 by Factum Arte using historical photographs. The FBI still lists it among its top ten art crimes. In 2021, Bernardo Tortorici of the Association of Friends of Sicilian Museums made a public appeal for its return.