# Sacrilegious Robbery [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [MAGNASCO, Alessandro]() - Date: 1701-1750 - Technique: Oil on canvas ## Commentary The painting illustrates a crime committed on January 6, 1731. Thieves were trying to force an entry into the church of S. Maria in Campomorto at Siziano \(Pavia\) to steal the holy vessels used for mass. They were seen off by skeletons which issued from the graves in the surrounding cemetery. The macabre scene is a large votive piece. The events are watched by the Virgin who we see in the top right-hand corner organizing the skeletons' sortie and decreeing the punishment for the thieves, who were subsequently hanged. The canvas belongs to the church where the attempted sacrilegious robbery took place but for safety reasons it is kept in the Diocesan Museum in Milan. ## Related artworks - [A Hermit in a Grotto]() - [Bacchanalian Scene]() - [Banditti at Rest]() - [Christ Adored by Two Nuns]() - [Christ Served by the Angels]() - [Entombment of a Soldier]() - [Gypsy Wedding Banquet]() - [Halt of the Brigands]() - [Interrogations in Jail]() - [Joseph Interprets the Dreams of the Pharaoh's Servants Whilst in Jail]() - [Market]() - [Mountainous Landscape]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()