A severed horse’s head has been left on the property of a businessman in Sicily in an act of mafia intimidation reminiscent of a scene from The Godfather.

The bloodied head was left on the seat of a digger belonging to the construction contractor in the town of Altofonte near Palermo, the regional capital of Sicily.

The body of a pregnant cow was also deposited at the property along with its calf, which had been ripped from its body.

The gruesome discoveries evoke one of the most famous scenes in The Godfather, the 1972 film where Marlon Brando played Don Vito Corleone, an American mafia boss with Sicilian roots.

In the movie, when Corleone’s request that his godson be given a movie role is rejected, he wakes up one morning with the severed head of his prized stud horse beside him in bed, the sheets soaked in blood.