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While preparing an exhibition last summer, museums in New York and Amsterdam contacted Milan's State Archives to request the loan of an architectural drawing of the Teatro alla Scala. This was no ordinary blueprint: the plan, about one meter squareand with some areas highlighted in red and yellow, is an autograph by Giuseppe Piermarini, the house's original architect, who may have traced it between 1776 and 1778.When the document was discovered missing in August, a special task force of Italy'scarabinieri (military police) called the Nucleo tutela patrimonio culturale launched anoperation code-named "Teatro alla Scala." A small flood of collectibles had recentlybeen appearing on Milan's antiquarian market, and the goal was to find the source ofthe treasures and to trace from there the whereabouts of the Piermarini drawing.The results of the investigation, announced earlier this month, were startling.Thousands of pieces were found to have disappeared: parchments from the 11thcentury; papal bulls; official decrees bearing the signatures of Emperor Charles V,Empress Maria Theresa and Napoleon; autograph manuscripts by such Italian literarygiants as Alessandro Manzoni and Gabriele D'Annunzio &#8212; a substantial slice of eightcenturies of European history, as seen through documents from one of the continent'swealthiest metropolitan centers from the Middle Ages onward. Some 3,000 items fromthe State Archives and smaller depositories have been recovered, while 1,000 moreare still reported missing, probably smuggled into private collections in Italy or abroad.(The plan of La Scala was discovered in a private home.)Since the investigation and gathering of evidence are ongoing, public prosecutor MariaLetizia Mannella is withholding the names of the three main suspects, who aredescribed as a professore (a civil servant employed by the provincial government ofMilan in the field of cultural heritage and an esteemed scholar), the principal of atechnical high school at San Donato Milanese (a neighboring township) and anantiquarian running a shop in downtown Milan. The trio have been charged not withactual theft, but rather with receiving stolen goods, which may hint at the involvementof a larger criminal organization. From andante.comRead more in Italian (December 2003):http://www2.unicatt.it/unicatt/seed/mag_gestion_cattnews.vedi_notizia?id_cattnewsT=2634