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Italy has been hit by what is believed to be the biggest winery heist in the country’s history, with a gang of professional thieves making off with around 30,000 bottles of fine wine worth an estimated £4 million.

The target was a warehouse belonging to Marchesi Antinori in Tuscany, one of Italy’s most renowned and prestigious wine producers.

Surveillance footage captured seven masked men breaking into the company’s storage facility in Cortona over the weekend and disabling the alarm system. The thieves then used forklifts belonging to the winery itself to load thousands of cases of Tuscan red wine onto two trucks.

Marchesi Antinori believes the carefully planned operation points to a highly organised criminal group.

The stolen wine had already been prepared for shipment to overseas distributors, allowing the thieves to remove a large quantity of valuable bottles quickly.

According to the company, the gang stole between 8,000 and 10,000 bottles of Solaia, one of Italy’s most sought-after wine brands. The haul also included bottles of Tignanello and Guado al Tasso.

Prices start at around £150 a bottle, while rare vintages can fetch thousands of pounds each.

A winery representative stressed that the targeted warehouse is the company’s largest storage facility, where all bottles are held before being dispatched to customers.

Marchesi Antinori chief executive Renzo Cotarella said Italy had never experienced a theft on such a scale or involving wine of such value.

“Two truckloads of goods can’t simply vanish into thin air. The roads in Tuscany are literally covered with cameras. Perhaps we’ll be lucky enough to recover at least some of the stolen bottles,” he said.

However, the winery chief expressed doubts that the thieves would be able to sell such a large consignment of fine wine on the international market without attracting attention.

“These wines are very expensive, and I can’t imagine how anyone could sell such a quantity around the world without attracting attention,” Cotarella added.

The company, whose history dates back to 1385, exports its wines to 170 countries. Following the heist, Marchesi Antinori warned customers worldwide to exercise caution when considering wine offers outside its official sales channels.

The winery hopes law enforcement authorities will be able to recover at least part of the stolen collection.

A Spate of Fine-Wine Thefts in Italy

The Tuscan heist is the latest in a series of similar crimes. In July, thieves broke into the Banfi winery in Montalcino, also in Tuscany.

Last month, around 3,000 bottles of Barolo wine were stolen in the northern Italian region of Piedmont. The haul was estimated to be worth several hundred thousand pounds.

The latest crime stands out both for the sheer volume of wine stolen and its value, with many of the bottles particularly coveted by wealthy collectors.

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