Thieves Take 30,000 Bottles in Italy's Largest-Ever Wine Heist

Thieves have stolen thousands of bottles of wine worth about €5 million from a prestigious winery in Tuscany, in what the international press is calling one of the largest heists of its kind in Italy. The Guardian reported that a gang broke into the cellar of Marchesi Antinori at Cortona and loaded two trucks with 30,000 bottles before making their getaway.

The Guardian put the number of the gang at at least seven men. France 24, in its own account, said the company believed two vans and up to six thieves were involved, and that the bottles had been prepared for a major export shipment. The New York Times reported that as many as ten men took part.

CBS News placed the value of the haul at about $5.8 million, a dollar figure that reflects currency conversion rather than a different estimate of the wine's worth. The BBC described the winery as Florence-based and the theft as believed to be among the largest of its kind in the country.

The discrepancies in the foreign accounts are themselves part of the story. Where the Guardian counts at least seven men, France 24 relays a company estimate of up to six and two vans, and the New York Times says as many as ten, the precise shape of the operation remains unclear. What the outlets agree on is the scale: 30,000 bottles, moved out of a working cellar and onto the road in what appears to have been a short, planned operation.

Antinori is among the most recognisable names in Italian wine, and Cortona, in the province of Arezzo, sits in the Tuscan hills south of Florence. The foreign coverage emphasises the prestige of the label and the fact that the stock had been assembled for export, which would make it both valuable and traceable. Bottles of that kind carry vintage and estate markings, and the international reports treat the theft as a matter of organised logistics rather than opportunism.

For Sicily, the resonance is not in the wine but in the method. The island's own cellars, particularly on Etna's northern slopes, have produced increasingly prized labels over the past two decades, and the world's wine press has made the Etna DOC one of the most watched appellations in the Mediterranean. A heist of this size in Tuscany is a reminder to producers across Italy that value concentrated in a single cellar is a target, and that the routes between vineyard and port pass through quiet country.

None of the cited outlets report arrests, and none attribute the theft to any named group. The company's own statements, as relayed by France 24, are the only business-side account in the wire. Investigators in Tuscany have not issued findings carried by the foreign press as of Friday evening.

The story will be measured in the coming days by what the Italian authorities recover and by whether the bottles surface in the legitimate trade or disappear into private collections. The foreign wires have framed it as a record: the biggest wine theft Italy has seen. That framing, more than the euro figure, is what the international coverage will carry forward.

Antinori has not, in the accounts available, commented beyond confirming the loss. The Guardian's report notes the gang loaded two trucks before the getaway, a detail that suggests the operation depended on knowing the cellar, the stock and the hour. That is the question the world's coverage leaves open: how a theft of this scale was planned, and where 30,000 bottles go.