A gang of thieves who thought they had successfully stolen a painting by Pieter Bruegel the Younger from a church in Italy woke up to a nasty surprise on Thursday – the revelation that it was a fake that had been deliberately planted by police.

In a lightning strike, the robbers filched The Crucifixion by the Flemish painter from a parish church in Castelnuovo Magra in the northwestern region of Liguria on Wednesday.

They were unaware that police had received intelligence that the oil painting, estimated to be worth around €3 million (£2.6 million) , might be stolen and had replaced the original with an exact replica.

Police also set up surveillance cameras around the church and are now studying the footage in an attempt to identify the culprits.

The theft of the painting was widely reported by the Italian media on Wednesday but it was only later that police revealed that the stolen masterpiece was not the real thing.

The mayor of the town was in on the subterfuge, initially telling media outlets that the loss of the Bruegel was “a hard blow for our community”.

The thieves pulled up in front of the Santa Maria Maddalena church in a white Peugeot at lunchtime, used a hammer to break open a display case and made off with the painting at high speed.