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The word “pentito,” in Italian, means “repented,” and has almost a religious connotation.

The latest pentito to tell a story about Caravaggio’s Nativity is Gaetano Grado.

The problem with pentito evidence is how to tell the truth from self-serving lies.

Another pentito, Gaspare Spatuzza, claimed a Cosa Nostra boss had told him that Caravaggio’s Nativity had been stashed in a barn where it was “ruined, eaten by rats and hogs and burned”.

The Nativity’s strange afterlife as a criminal conversation piece began when one of Italy’s bravest prosecutors, Giovanni Falcone, sat face to face with a pentito, a member of Cosa Nostra who decided to turn against the organisation.