An original painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, portraying a “Naked Woman”, and a nature morte authenticated as a work by Edouard Manet, afterwards found to be a forgery, have been recovered by the Italian Carabinieri Corps of the operational department for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, which has arrested three people for complicity in receiving stolen goods.
A mature Renoir, probably old-aged given some uncertainties in the brushstroke, stolen in 1975, whose traces had been lost for 33 years.  At last, the original painting, which has been attributed without doubt to the impressionist artist, can now be seen in the splendour of the female figure’s white carnation on the background of a bright landscape thanks to the Carabinieri Corps, to art critic Vittorio Sgarbi and, by ironic fate, to a ball hit by a little girl.
But let’s explain what happened. In the Sixties the precious painting that hung on the wall of a house in Milan was damaged by a girl who kicked a ball leaving a mark in the bottom right corner.  Her parents had to get a restorer to remedy the damage, but nobody thought that 33 years later, the mark would have been the definitive proof that that was actually the canvas stolen from the restorer’s studio so many years before.
We do not know the movements of the work in these years, but investigations are already being carried out to find out this information. What is for sure is that the “Naked woman” is the one taken away from its legitimate owner in 1975, and the essential contribute for its recovery was given by the figure of Vittorio Sgarbi who last May was contacted by the holders of the work, who were looking for a qualified valuation in order to place it at the highest price possible.  Indeed, the painting estimated at about 500 thousand euros, should have been sold, together with the fake Manet, for about 2-3 million euros.
Sgarbi’s role was extremely important, as after being asked for his expertise by the criminals, he set the police force on the traces of the two canvases.  The results of the investigation were narrated by the commanding officer of the Carabinieri Corps for Cultural Heritage, general Gianni Nistri, and by the prosecutor Giancarlo Capaldo, who followed Sgarbi’s tip-off. 
The critic had been approached by Amedea Setti, sixty-eight-year-old artist and owner of an art gallery in Emilia Romagna, who had put him in contact with her accomplices to show him the two paintings. 
Being suspicious, Sgarbi got into contact with the police squad, having matured with them a relationship of trust, which searched for a match on the data bank of the Carabinieri Corps.  Renoir’s painting, which belonged to a family from Milan, resulted to have been stolen in 1975, so the investigations were opened with tailings and interceptions that allowed the identification of  three people.  Besides Amedea Setti, the other people involved in the investigation are Francesco Attisani, artist who dealt in falsifying works of art and Aniello Ambrosio, already known by the law for his criminal past in international drug trafficking.  Once he had arranged a meeting with the three, Vittorio Sgarbi waited to see the works: at that point the Carabinieri intervened.
The investigations coordinated by Giancarlo Capaldo “were possible thanks to the crucial use of interceptions, that allowed to monitor the people involved, following their movements”, as pointed out by Ilaria Calò, substitute prosecutor for the Republic of Rome.
On the other hand, the “Nature Morte”, attributed to Manet, resulted to be a forgery.  Probably, according to the police force experts, it is a nineteenth-century work to which the artist’s signature and, on the back, the authentications were later added.  After the robbery, which took place more than 30 years ago, the works ended up in a vault, passed from hand to hand, waiting to be placed again on the market.  And if the Renoir, Nistri said, at the end of the procedure will go back to its legitimate owners, the fake Manet will probably be confiscated.  A further measure, concluded the commanding officer, could be the destruction of the painting or its assignment to the Museo del Falso in Salerno, as a “perfect fake”.  Now it is up to the judge to make the decision.  (translated by Giorgina Arcuri)