APCOM

Three wooden choir's seats made at the end of the 15th century by cabinet-maker Giacomo del Maino which were stolen from the Sant'Ambrogio basilica just after the 1943 bombings, have been retrieved by the special antiquities and heritage squad of the Carabinieri and have been returned to the Milanese church. The three backs of chairs, whose hypothetical value could be around 200,000 euros, belong to the ecclesiastic community and are protected by the State, as there types of works are considered inalienable and can not be given away.

The investigation started from the study of the catalogue of an antique auction which was going to take place in Milano. The Carabineri noticed a polychrome wooden panel, finely inlaid, which visibly came from an ecclesiastic context. The picture of the auctioned object was compared with the images of the basilica's properties last catalogue, drawn up in 1942. The panel was recognised as one of the missing parts of the choir and it was immediately seized by the court officers.

It was an old lady who put on auction the panel. She had inherited it together with other three panels, which she spontaneously gave to the Carabinieri. The woman didn't know that the panels (110x70 centimetres), which portray pastoral scenes, were stolen and kept in a warehouse in order to save them from the awful bombings that hit Milano in 1943. The woman's family came into possession of these works of art after they were passed through many hands, so she hasn't been charged.

Five-six backs of chairs are still missing from Sant'Ambrogio basilica, while three are displayed at the Museo Diocesano and one at the Castello Sforzesco. In order to avoid similar losses, the Diocese is carrying out an inventory of the cultural patrimony scattered in the 1,100 parishes of Milano's Archdioceses.