Four works by Renaissance master Antonello da Messina stolen from Sicily museum

Four works by Renaissance painter Antonello da Messina were stolen from the Museo Regionale di Messina in Sicily on 15 August during Assumption Day (Ferragosto) celebrations, Messina’s mayor Federico Basile told Reuters. Thieves took five wooden panels from the 1473 altarpiece Polittico di San Gregorio but abandoned two panels outside the museum—reported by Finestre sull'Arte as those depicting St Benedict and St Gregory—and also stole a small double-sided painting (Virgin and Child with a Franciscan monk on one side, Christ on the other) from a secure display case. Gazzetta del Sud reported that the alarm triggered immediately and surveillance footage showed the theft took roughly two to three minutes; museum director Marisa Mercurio and Italy’s culture minister Alessandro Giuli publicly condemned the theft. Art Recovery International founder Christopher Marinello compared the incident to the 1990 Isabella Stewart Gardner heist and suggested the thieves were likely not local, noting heightened attention on Antonello after Italy bought Ecce Homo and Saint Jerome in the Desert at Sotheby’s in February for about $15 million.

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