A gang of masked individuals has carried out what is believed to be the largest wine theft in Italy's history at the Marchesi Antinori winery in Tuscany. Thieves stole approximately 30,000 bottles of premium, first-rate red wine with an estimated value of 5 million euros.
The heist occurred Saturday night at a warehouse near Cortona, in the province of Arezzo. A group of between five and ten people deactivated the alarms and surveillance cameras before using company forklifts to load the bottles into two trucks. The robbery was not discovered until Monday.
Marchesi Antinori, a renowned family-run winemaker dating back to 1385, has warned customers to be vigilant regarding offers of its wines coming from outside official channels. The company's wines are highly sought after and have been targeted by counterfeiters for years.