A warehouse emptied overnight
Thieves stole about 30,000 bottles of premium wine from a Marchesi Antinori storage facility in Tuscany, in what the company calls the largest wine theft in Italian history. The haul is worth an estimated 5 million euros, or about 5.8 million dollars.
Italian media and the BBC reported that at least seven masked people entered the warehouse in Cortona, in the province of Arezzo. They disabled alarms and surveillance cameras, then loaded two large trucks during the night. The bottles included prized Tuscan reds: Tignanello, Solaia and Guado al Tasso. Single bottles of these labels often sell for 175 to 580 euros.
The gang used the company's own equipment
The most striking detail is how the goods moved. The thieves used the winery's own forklifts to shift thousands of cases onto the trucks. The theft happened while staff were preparing a shipment for customers abroad, which meant the stock was staged and ready to roll.
Chief executive Renzo Cotarella called the group "highly trained" and said it may be the same crew that has targeted other Italian wineries in recent months. In September, thieves took about 3,000 bottles of Barolo from a producer in Piedmont, again using the estate's own forklift to move the cases.
A warning to buyers
Antinori has told customers worldwide to be careful of offers made outside official sales channels. Cotarella said he hopes the wine can be traced, noting that "two trucks full of merchandise can't just disappear into thin air." Tuscan roads carry many cameras, he added, so some bottles may be recovered. Police and Carabinieri are investigating.
The case also points to a practical problem for producers. Premium wine is compact, valuable and easy to move with standard material-handling gear. Security specialists say alarms and cameras are not enough when a site holds millions of euros of finished goods, and that loading-dock controls matter as much as perimeter fencing.
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