Stolen paint recovered 35 years ago

He was taken at the tip of a pistola. This is a work by Bartolomé Esteban Murrillo, who was in the Museum of Decorative Art in Rosario.

A painting by Spanish artist Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, stolen 35 years ago from the Museum of Decorative Art “Firma y Odilo Estévez” in the city of Rosario and recovered in Uruguay last November, was restored yesterday to its rightful owners by the Ministry of Security.

The work, which dates from the seventeenth century and is entitled “Santa Catalina”, was valued at the exorbitant sum of one and a half million dollars and was recovered in the Uruguayan town of Canelones, in a joint investigation between the Argentine Federal Police (PFA) and Interpol.

The restitution of the painting was carried out in the building of the Ministry of National Security, located in Pasaje Gelly and Obes 2289 in the city of Buenos Aires, at 11.15 on Thursday, where details of the procedure that culminated in the recovery of the valuable painting were also given.

The work, stolen in Rosario on 2 November 1983 by three armed criminals, could be located following an investigation initiated following an anonymous complaint made to the PFA Cultural Heritage Protection Department, which claimed it was in the Eastern Republic of Uruguay.

For this reason, the officers contacted their peers at the National Central Office of Interpol in Montevideo, who, through the information obtained, were able to locate the painting, which was held by five Uruguayan citizens. The suspects were finally arrested at kilometer 35.5 of the Interbalnearia Route, in the town of Canelones.

In addition to the painting, valued at one and a half million dollars, a pistol and revolver were hijacked .22 calibers, ammunition, a Hyunday van, a Nissan car and six cell phones used by the criminals. Murillo was a Spanish Baroque painter who was born in Seville at the end of 1617 and who had great influence on his disciples and followers until the middle of the 18th century, with much of his religious work destined to churches and convents.

The case is heard by the Court of First Instance in Criminal Investigation of the second nomination of Santa Fe, headed by Silvia Laura Castelli, and the Office of the Prosecutor for Economic and Complex Crimes of the city of Montevideo.

Source/Image: Cronica