The 17th century Atlas stolen 80 years ago in Agrigento was about to be sold abroad

The ancient Atlas “Theatrum Orbis Terrarum” by Abraham Ortelius was returned this morning by the Carabinieri of the Cultural Heritage Protection Unit to the Lucchesiana Library in Agrigento. The volume was delivered to Don Angelo Chillura, director of the Library, by Lieutenant Colonel Giuseppe De Gori, Commander of the Carabinieri Tpc Unit of Bologna. The important book work, dating back to 1612, had been stolen from the Library before 1947. The restitution took place in the presence of Archbishop Alessandro Damiano, and Colonel Vittorio Stingo, Provincial Carabinieri Commander of Agrigento.

The exceptional recovery is the result of the collaboration between the Tpc Nucleus of Bologna, the Archival and Bibliographic Superintendence of Emilia Romagna and the Export Office of the Superintendence of Archeology, Fine Arts and Landscape (SABAP) for the Metropolitan City of Bologna and the Provinces of Modena, Ferrara and Reggio Emilia.

In particular, the regional body for the protection of books and archives of the Ministry of Culture, during the investigations ordered by the Export Office of the Bologna SABAP on the Atlas, presented by a trader for the issue of the certificate of free circulation aimed at upon his definitive exit from Italy, he had detected the presence of stamps erased on all the tables of the work and, for this reason, he interested the Bolognese Nucleus for the investigations.

The consequent and complex investigations conducted by the specialized Department of the Weapon – coordinated by the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Bologna and carried out with the technical and scientific assistance of the Carabinieri of the Scientific Investigations Department (RIS) of Parma and of the officials specialized in book matters of the Archival and Bibliographic Superintendence of Emilia Romagna – made it possible to isolate the trace of a wet stamp still present on the book work and thus ascertain its illicit origin.

Equally meticulous and essential were the historical-bibliographic investigations provided by the Director of the Lucchesiana Library, through which it was possible to acquire the necessary inventory findings of the asset and thus date its subtraction in the period prior to 1947.