The daughter of the wartime artist who designed Orkney’s Italian Chapel is “distressed” by the theft of three plaques from the site.
The chapel was the brainchild of prisoner of war Domenico Chiocchetti, whose eldest daughter Letizia is now the honorary president of the Italian Chapel Preservation Committee.
The group’s secretary John Muir has been keeping the family informed after it was revealed that three wooden plaques had been stolen from the chapel.
Mr Muir said: “She has remained a good friend of Orkney and she has been quite distressed to hear that the plaques had gone missing.
“She has probably visited more times than anyone else from Italy who was involved and was here just six weeks ago.
“These plaques were a personal gift from her family so it’s understandable that she would be upset about this.
“They’ve been there since 1964 and now some idiot has damaged that, and that’s sad.”
Mr Chiocchetti, who died in 1999, was from Moena in Italy and donated the plaques to the chapel as a gift.
Each is made of mahogany, measuring about 6in x 8in, and depicting the journey of Christ to the cross.
They are individually numbered with Roman numerals – the missing plaques being IV, VI and X.
Mr Muir also praised the police after a plea for information drew an international response.
An appeal for photographs of the chapel means officers have been able to narrow down when the theft took place to between 9am on Wednesday, August 6, and 5.40pm on Friday, August 8.
A police spokesman said investigators had received between 40 and 50 pictures from as far afield as Switzerland.
Mr Muir welcomed the progress but said he wasn’t holding out much hope for recovering the plaques.
He said: “The police have done a good job and been quite clever in the way they’ve gone about things.
“I think it’s very unlikely that we will recover them now though. I think whoever has them will just hold onto them because it will hard to pass them on after all this attention.”
Anyone with information can contact the police on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.