(ANSA) - Italian investigators say the sudden return this weekend of priceless furniture stolen from a royal hunting lodge near Turin will not stop their search for the thieves.
After a tip-off, police found all 27 pieces of furniture and four paintings in a field in the countryside near Turin, not far from the Stupinigi Palace from which they were stolen two years ago.
The goods, said to be worth about 40 million euros, were covered in frost but otherwise in good condition, police said.
"We think they had been left there just a few hours earlier. Obviously our investigations had made the thieves feel under pressure and they couldn't wait to get rid of the goods," said Turin prosecutor Francesco Saluzzo.
"We won't stop here though," he stressed. "We'll carry on trying to find those responsible."
The furniture is part of a collection housed in the Stupinigi Palace, the former summer residence of the House of Savoy, Italy's royal family until it became a republic in 1946.
Many of the tables, desks, chairs and mirrors are the original items made for the royal family's third palace by master craftsmen in the 18th century.
"They are priceless," said Carla Enrica Spantigati, the regional government official in charge of Piedmont's artistic heritage.
She said the thieves who stole the items one night in February 2004 must have realised that their loot was simply too famous and valuable to sell quietly on the underground art market.
"It just wasn't possible to place the stolen goods on the market. Even the big English auction houses would have refused to deal in furniture of this pedigree."
According to investigators, the band probably tried to sell the items both in Italy and abroad, but failed.
Detectives believe that the furniture never left the area around Stupinigi and that it was not stolen on commission. If it had been, it would have arrived sooner or later on the British art market, they said.
They are reportedly following a number of leads which could still lead them to the thieves.
