The flower thief is a story from Castagno di Pitecchio, a little village in the hills of Tuscany.
I was invited there as an artist there and on the way up to the village through the beautiful Tuscan chestnut forests and olive groves, I told the organizer of the artist residency that I was collecting stories. I hope you find some, she said, this village is an old people’s home.
Then she told me about the ladro di legna, the wood thief. It was not a story, she just told me of his existence: A guy who lives in this village and who steals firewood from other people. I needed to find out more about him!
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We passed the village and stopped in a settlement of two houses in the middle of the forest. Behind one of the houses was an olive grove, and there was a tiny cottage: my home for the next two weeks.
I started drawing the same afternoon, and this was my first drawing – the flower thief.
She’s the charming sister of the wood thief because somehow, it seems less offensive to steal flowers than wood. Later, I also made a drawing of the wood thief, of course. But I always liked her better and for me, she fits better to what I would find out about him later.
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In the following days, I asked people about the wood thief, but when I did, they all started to change the topic. This made me even more curious, so I made sure to ask everybody about him.
Finally learnt about him from Riccardo, a sinewy and energetic man in his eighties who always was busy running around fixing things here and there in the village. Riccardo was pretty outspoken and had already told me many stories, so when I asked him about the wood thief, and although he didn’t seem to like the topic either, gave me some short insight: Si si, il ladro de legna! But he’s a povero pazzo, he’s not right in his head.
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That’s all I ever knew about him, and in my imagination, he – and his imaginary sister, the flower thief – remain some kind of mythical, almost archetypal figure to me.

The flower thief is available as fine art print in my shop.

Stories