Sicily art heist: Four Renaissance masterpieces stolen from museum during holiday

Messina: Thieves have raided a regional museum in Sicily, making off with four priceless Renaissance masterpieces attributed to the Italian master Antonello da Messina during the peak of the nationwide Ferragosto holiday. 

The break-in occurred at the MuMe regional museum in Messina on Saturday evening shortly before 10:00 pm. Burglars bypassed the site's security and alarm systems to steal three surviving panels from the 1473 San Gregorio Polyptych. They also breached an armored display case to extract a double-sided panel depicting the Virgin Mary and the dead Christ in Pietà.

Museum officials and local authorities expressed deep shock over the raid.

“We are devastated by what happened. They were two of Antonello da Messina’s most important and best-known works. It is a tremendous loss for the museum, the city, the community and the art world,” MuMe director Marisa Mercurio told the ANSA news agency.

Underscoring the local significance of the stolen panels, Mercurio added: “These are not merely works by Antonello da Messina. They are works that hold considerable significance in terms of our identity, as well as, of course, their artistic and cultural value, because they are works by our very own Antonello da Messina.”

Messina’s senior cultural officer, Enzo Caruso, described the theft as “a disaster” that strikes at the heart of the region's heritage.

“Messina without Antonello is deprived of the very essence of the greatest artist of the European Renaissance,” Caruso told Sky, urging international cooperation to secure their swift return.

The heist follows a surge in global interest in the artist after Italy’s Culture Ministry acquired Antonello’s devotional masterpiece Ecce Homo for $14.9 million via Sotheby’s in New York earlier this year.

However, art crime experts believe the thieves will face immense difficulty monetising the haul.

"Stealing an Antonello may be far easier than selling one. If these are ordinary thieves, they will soon discover that — to their cost,” Lynda Albertson, chief executive of the ARCA art crimes research association, told La Repubblica. She noted that such famous, instantly recognizable works cannot be traded through legitimate channels and frequently end up circulating through criminal syndicates as collateral.

The museum remained closed while forensic officers and the Carabinieri gathered evidence. The raid took place during Ferragosto—Italy's major mid-August summer holiday—and comes just days after Italian police successfully recovered stolen works by Renoir, Cézanne, and Matisse valued at €10 million ($11.5 million) in Parma. (AP)