Four paintings attributed to Renaissance master Antonello da Messina were taken from the Regional Interdisciplinary Museum of Messina on Saturday night, according to Italy’s culture minister Alessandro Giuli. The stolen works consist of three panels from the Polyptych of San Gregorio and a double-sided panel depicting the Madonna with Child and Christ in Pietà. Museum officials reported that the theft occurred around 21:50 local time, with the Madonna and Christ in Pietà removed directly from a secure display case.
Investigators are examining how the thieves bypassed the museum’s alarm system without detection. Police are exploring whether the paintings were stolen to order by black market art dealers, according to reports from Italian news agency Ansa. The wooden panel composition of the artworks would have made them difficult to roll or conceal easily, yet all were successfully removed from the facility.
Antonello da Messina was a prominent 15th-century painter born in Sicily who became recognized as a master of the early Renaissance period. The San Gregorio Polyptych, created in 1473, features the Virgin Mary with the infant Jesus flanked by Saint Gregory and Saint Benedict alongside various angels. The work, originally commissioned for a monastery, survives in five panels. The double-panel work, painted around the same period, depicts scenes of the infant Christ blessing a follower while held by the Virgin Mary on one side and the adult Christ in death on the other, suggesting it was originally designed for private devotional use.
Museum director Marisa Mercurio characterized the incident as devastating to the institution and community. Messina’s mayor Federico Basile described the theft as a heinous criminal act targeting the city’s cultural heritage. The incident reflects a broader pattern of museum thefts across Europe, with Italian authorities having recently recovered three artworks stolen from a museum near Parma earlier in the year valued at €9 million.
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