SICILY: Art lovers in Sicily are appealing to a Mafia informer serving a life term to reveal the hiding place of a stolen Caravaggio painting worth an estimated $30 million (€25.6 million).
They believe Francesco Marino Mannoia knows the location of the Nativity with Saints Francis and Lawrence, which was cut from its frame in the San Lorenzo oratory, Palermo, in 1969. Mannoia, a heroin refiner whose mother, sister and aunt were murdered by the Mafia after he turned state's evidence, has admitted taking part in the theft.
The work was painted by Caravaggio in 1609, a year before he died. The Italian police, Interpol and the FBI have all tried to trace it. There are several conflicting theories as to its possible fate: it was destroyed shortly after the theft, sold to a collector in eastern Europe, buried in an earthquake in Naples or it remains in Mafia hands.