Painting Stolen 20 Years Ago Found with AI-Powered System

Italian police forces have located and seized a 17th-century painting of Saint Agnese that was stolen 20 years ago, thanks to an artificial intelligence software developed to detect hidden artworks. The piece, identified after photos taken at an antique fair in Parma were uploaded to the system, had been stolen from a church near Naples in 2004.

During an annual antique fair held in Italy in October 2024, police officers on duty took photographs of the exhibited artworks and transferred them to an in-house database. Shortly after, the system flagged a painting of a young woman holding a parchment scroll. The following day, police teams seized the painting for inspection. Lieutenant Colonel Salvatore Rapicavoli of the Italian Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Property stated that the artificial intelligence system enables the faster detection of stolen artworks.

It was confirmed that the approximately 1-meter-tall 17th-century painting named Saint Agnese was looted on August 11, 2004, from the small church of Virgo Potens in Sulmona, near Naples, and was subsequently repainted and altered to conceal its identity. Launched in November 2023, the artificial intelligence algorithm called the Stolen Works of Art Detection System (Swoads) was developed by Rapicavoli's team in 2020 to match hidden visual fingerprints, color tones, and rough silhouettes. The system can detect works despite alterations such as missing scrolls or erased nimbi.