In the charming town of Piran, attractions like the Sergej Mašera Maritime Museum, the Diving Museum, the Piran aquarium, the shell exhibition, various galleries, and the birthplace of Giuseppe Tartini are drawing more visitors than ever. Among these cultural treasures, two more event venues have also gained popularity: the picturesque Georgios pastoral garden, hosting a variety of cultural events, and the Cloister of the Minorite Monastery. As far as acoustics are concerned, the Cloister stands out as one of Slovenia’s premier venues. This has made it a favored location for musical events over the years, regularly hosting the Piran Music Evenings and the Tartini Festival. Within the cloister, visitors can access the curated Pinacotheca, where the Minorites display valuable paintings by Venetian artists from their collection.
However, few are aware of the dramatic events that took place 10 years prior to Slovenia becoming a full member country of EU on May 1, 2004. It was on April 24, 1994, when Italian thieves broke into the monastic church of St. Francis and made off with several precious canvases from their valuable historic collection. In a real-life twist worthy of a movie, Italian border authorities at then still functioning Škofije crossing between Slovenia and Italy caught the culprits the same night, recovering the stolen artworks which were later returned to the Minorites in Piran. These very pieces and more now reside in the mentioned monastery’s pinacotheca.
Unfortunately, not all the thefts of the past have had the same happy ending, as these paintings managed to avoid the fate of many other valuable works stolen from Istrian churches and museums by Italian authorities just before World War II, such as Carpaccio’s Madonna and Child from the same St. Francis Church. These authorities claimed they were protecting the artworks from wartime destruction, yet decades later, despite the now strong diplomatic ties between the two countries, these Venetian masterpieces have yet to be returned to their rightful owners in the Slovenian Istria.
Photo by Isiwal/Wikimedia Commons under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
