Bone Scalpel

Palermo, Saturday, October 18, 1969, 6 pm. In a baroque oratoryoratory Small chapel or prayer hall, often run by a confraternity, separate from a parish church. in the Kalsa district, all white stuccostucco Fine plaster molded and dried into relief decoration for walls and ceilings, typical of baroque churches., with no alarm and no guard, the caretaker Agata Mirabella came to open up at 3 pm for the novenanovena Catholic devotion of prayers repeated over nine consecutive days..

Above the altar, the frame was empty. The canvas of the Nativity with Saint Rosalia and Saint Benedict, painted in 1600 by a Lombard master of chiaroscurochiaroscuro Painting technique that uses strong contrasts of light and shadow to model figures and create drama., had been cut off flush with the nails and carried away rolled up.

It rained all night and no door was forced. Whoever came in, came in with a key.

Three people knew this altar well this week. One of them knows where the canvas is.

Baroque oratoryoratory Small chapel or prayer hall, often run by a confraternity, separate from a parish church. in Palermo in 1969, at dusk, with an empty gilded frame above the altar.