Marchesi Antinori, one of Italy’s largest family-owned wineries, reported a major theft from its storage facility in Tuscany this week. According to Italian media accounts, at least seven masked individuals gained access to the facility, where they deactivated alarm systems, disabled surveillance cameras, and used company forklifts to load approximately 30,000 bottles of wine onto two large trucks.
The stolen merchandise consists of the winery’s prestigious wine selections, including Tignanello, Solaia, and Guado al Tasso Tuscan red varieties. The bottles typically sell for between €150 and €500 each, with the total estimated loss valued at approximately €5 million. Company leadership believes the thieves’ knowledge of which specific wines to target suggests they possessed either professional expertise in the wine industry or inside information about the facility’s inventory.
The theft occurred as the company was preparing to ship a consignment to international customers. The incident went undetected until staff discovered the loss at the beginning of the week. Renzo Cotarella, the company’s chief executive, characterized this as the largest theft of its kind ever recorded in Italy and expressed optimism that authorities could recover at least some of the stolen bottles, noting that moving such a large quantity of merchandise would be difficult to accomplish undetected.
Marchesi Antinori, founded in 1385, operates a global export business reaching 170 countries and reported €263 million in revenue in the previous year. The theft represents part of a broader trend of wine-related thefts occurring across Italy this year, with multiple incidents reported in the northern Piedmont region involving significant quantities of stolen merchandise. No arrests have been announced in connection with the incident.
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