30,000 bottles stolen from Marchesi Antinori warehouse in Tuscany

Thieves made off with some 30,000 bottles of wine — valued at about €5 million — from the Marchesi Antinori warehouse in Tuscany, the company says. The theft took place on Saturday while staff were preparing a shipment bound for overseas customers.

Two trucks loaded with premium reds

Company representatives say at least seven masked men disabled alarm systems, cut power to security cameras and used the estate's forklifts to load two large trucks. Among the bottles taken were some of the estate's most valuable Tuscan reds: Tignanello, Solaia and Guado al Tasso.

Renzo Cotarella, the winery's chief executive, described the scale of the loss as unprecedented for Italy. "A theft of this magnitude and value certainly has never happened in Italy before," he said.

Cotarella expressed hope that investigators would be able to recover at least part of the haul. "Two trucks full of goods cannot simply vanish without a trace. The roads in Tuscany are covered with cameras — maybe, with a bit of luck, we'll be able to recover at least part of the stolen bottles," he said.

The company believes the specific selection of bottles points to thieves who knew their wines and likely had inside information; the affected bottles generally retail between €150 and €500 each. The theft was not discovered until Monday morning, when employees arrived for work, and so far no arrests have been made.

Marchesi Antinori, founded in 1385, exports to 170 countries and reported revenues of €263 million last year.

Photo: press material from the event