The Italian police have announced that some luxury villas on the Amalfi coast, a destination for wealthy foreign tourists, were decorated with priceless art works stolen from churches and private collectors.

The Carabinieri department for the Protection of Cultural Heritage announced that it had retrieved 37 paintings including a work by Guido Reni, one of the most famous 17th century Baroque painters, as well as five 17th and 18th century retables (paintings that adorn the area behind the Alter), stolen from churches damaged by earthquakes near L’Aquila.

A criminal organization “stole works of art and later used them to decorate luxury villas on the Amalfi coast, to attract foreign tourists who wished to spend their holidays there” stated the Carabinieri press release.

According to the police, the retrieved art works had been stolen over the last 20 years and three individuals related to their buying and selling—art dealers and their clients- are being prosecuted without having been arrested.