Thieves steal 30,000 wine bottles worth €5m in Italy, reports say

What the report says

BBC World News reports that thieves stole about 30,000 bottles of wine, valued at roughly €5 million, from Marchesi Antinori’s storage facility in Tuscany, Italy. The company said the break-in happened on Saturday while it was preparing a shipment for overseas customers, but the theft was not noticed until staff arrived on Monday morning.

According to the report, at least seven masked men are believed to have disabled alarms and security cameras before using company forklifts to load the wine into two trucks. The bottles taken were from the winery’s high-end Tuscan labels, including Tignanello, Solaia and Guado al Tasso. The stolen wines usually sell for between €150 and €500 per bottle, which helped prompt speculation that the thieves may have had specialist knowledge of the cellar and its contents.

Renzo Cotarella, Marchesi Antinori’s chief executive, described the heist as unprecedented in Italy, while saying he hoped authorities could recover some of the missing stock. No arrests have been reported. The winery, founded in 1385, is one of Italy’s largest family-owned producers and exports to many countries, which helps explain why the theft has drawn wide attention.

The BBC also noted that Italy has seen a string of wine thefts this year, adding context to concerns about organized theft targeting valuable alcoholic beverages.