Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 6, 1994 TAG: 9402060141
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ROME LENGTH: Short
More than 100 officers from a special art theft squad are turning Rome inside out looking for the stolen icon, believed miraculous by countless worshipers over the centuries.
There have been no good clues, only sobs and prayers at the scene of the crime: a hilltop church where the beloved statue was kept before it disappeared late Tuesday.
"I feel like I lost my own son," moaned Francesca Ricci on Saturday, stroking the base of the gilded case where the Bambinello, or Little Baby, rested.
Every year, tens of thousands of people visit the small side chapel in the Roman Catholic church of St. Mary's in Aracoeli to view the jewel-covered statue, carved from an olive tree in the garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem. Letters to the Bambinello surround its case.
The two-foot medieval icon is especially dear to new mothers, who bring their infants to the statue for a blessing of good health.
Rome Mayor Francesco Rutelli called the theft "an insult to the heart of Rome." Rev. Paolo Lombardo, one of the Franciscan friars at the church, has led special prayer vigils for the return of the statue.
Authorities have disclosed few leads. Three young men were spotted in the church shortly before the theft of the statue and $2,000 in offerings. One suspicion is that the thieves grabbed the statue while the friars were at evening prayer and fled to a getaway car.
by CNB