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The sophisticated operation at the company’s storage facility in Tuscany’s Arezzo province targeted a shipment prepared for export customers, according to statements from Marchesi Antinori. Chief executive Renzo Cotarella described the incident to Corriere della Sera as unprecedented in scale for the Italian wine sector. Multiple outlets including la Repubblica and ANSA reported that the theft occurred undetected across the weekend until staff arrived on Monday morning, with no arrests made so far.
At least seven masked individuals took part in the raid, disabling alarms and surveillance cameras before loading two large trucks with company forklifts, Cotarella told the Financial Times. The stolen inventory consisted entirely of 2023 vintage wines including roughly 10,000 to 12,000 bottles each of Solaia and Tignanello plus Guado al Tasso and special formats such as magnums, an assessment from the company detailed. Retail prices for the affected labels range from €120 to €300 per bottle, Il Sole 24 Ore reported.
All the bottles carried the producer’s anti-counterfeiting systems, Marchesi Antinori said in updates to global clients. Cotarella characterised the perpetrators as both professional thieves and knowledgeable selectors of high-value stock. Police from the Carabinieri and State Police forces continue to examine available footage and leads, according to coverage in WineNews.
This heist marks the latest in a series of wine thefts across Italy in 2026, following incidents in the Piedmont region where more than 3,000 bottles of Barolo were taken from Conterno Fantino in September and a similar volume of Alta Langa sparkling wine from a Banfi facility, la Repubblica noted. Cotarella suggested the same organised group could be behind several recent operations targeting wineries, as carried in reporting by ORF.at. The pattern has raised concerns about vulnerabilities in logistics and storage for premium producers.
Marchesi Antinori, established in 1385 and among Italy’s largest family-owned wine groups, exports to 170 countries and posted revenue of €263 million in the previous financial year, according to company figures cited across media reports. The country’s top 120 wine companies collectively generated just over €9 billion in 2025, representing 64.3 percent of total sector turnover despite a 1.4 percent decline from 2024, an analysis by Corriere della Sera based on Unione Italiana Vini observatory data found. Antinori ranked fifth in that listing, underscoring its position in an industry facing broader sales pressures.
The company has alerted international distributors to scrutinise any unusual offers outside authorised channels, Cotarella explained in interviews. “A theft of this scale and value has certainly never occurred in Italy,” he told Corriere della Sera. He added that recovery remained possible because “two trucks full of merchandise can’t just disappear into thin air” given the prevalence of road cameras in Tuscany.
