A Verona court on Monday handed
down prison sentences totalling 31 years against four defendants
for armed robbery and kidnapping conspiracy in a 2015 art heist
from the city's Castelvecchio Museum.
Pasquale Silvestri Ricciardi was sentenced to 10 years eight
months, his twin brother Francesco got 10 years, his Moldavian
girlfriend Svetlana Tkachuk got six years and her fellow
national Victor Potinga was sentenced to five years in prison.
Defendants Denis Damaschin from Italy and Anatolie Burlac
from Moldavia earlier plea-bargained sentences of three years
four months and one year eight months, respectively.
The gang in November 2015 made off with 17 Old Master
paintings worth an estimated 15 million euros overall, museum
officials said at the time.
The loot included Andrea Mantegna's Holy Family with a Saint,
Pisanello's Madonna of the Quail, Peter Paul Rubens' Lady with
Campions, and six Tintorettos.
The paintings were discovered buried in a wood in Ukraine
near the Moldavia border last May.
Ukraine has yet to return the paintings to Italy.
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