Police have arrested one of two
remaining fugitives suspected of heisting 17 Renaissance
paintings from Verona's Castelvecchio Museum last year, sources
said Friday.
Moldovan national Anatolie Burlac is accused of being part
of the gang that broke in to the museum on November 19, making
off with paintings worth an estimated 15 million euros overall.
Burlac was nabbed on a European arrest warrant while
attempting to cross into Romania from Moldova.
One suspect remains at large, police said.
The gang made off with 17 paintings, including Andrea
Mantegna's Holy Family with a Saint, Pisanello's Madonna of the
Quail, Peter Paul Rubens' Lady with Campions, and six
Tintorettos, museum officials said.
In March this year, the Verona flying squad arrested 12
Moldovan and Italian suspects.
Investigators believe private security guard Francesco
Silvestri, who was on duty at the museum on the night of the
heist, Silvestri's twin brother Pasquale and the latter's
Moldovan wife Svetlana Pkachuck acted as go-betweens for the
robbers.
The Carabinieri art squad is trying to track the paintings
down.
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