Detectives investigating the murder of an Italian man whose corpse was found bound to a supermarket trolley in a London canal have made two arrests.
A 61-year-old man and a 22-year-old man have been arrested in connection with the death of Sebastiano Magnanini, Scotland Yard said.
Magnanini’s decomposing body was pulled from Regent’s canal, in north London, on 24 September after being spotted by a passerby. The 46-year-old, originally from Venice, was last seen alive two days before.
Detectives said they were continuing to investigate the murder and had informed Magnanini’s family about the arrests. Both suspects are being questioned at central London police stations.
DCI Rebecca Reeves, who is leading the investigation, said previously she did not believe the death was linked to his past conviction for art theft in Italy or to organised crime.
“The people who know how he died are living locally,” she said.
The cause of Magnanini’s death remains unknown following an inconclusive postmortem examination. Further toxicology tests are under way.
The 46-year-old carpenter was jailed for 18 months in the late 1990s after stealing an 18th-century painting worth nearly 2bn lira (then about £1m) from a church in Venice.
Friends and family of Magnanini, who grew up in Venice before moving to London and travelling to Vietnam and Cambodia, have spoken out against his portrayal as an art thief and a criminal, saying he had turned his life around.
