Four Renaissance masterpieces by Antonello da Messina, valued at up to €80 million (about $93 million), have been stolen from the Regional Interdisciplinary Museum MuMe in Messina, Sicily, Italy. Cultural officials and Italian media confirmed the theft occurred around 9:50 p.m. on Saturday, coinciding with the region's major Ferragosto holiday.
Il Giornale dell’Arte reported that the thieves took advantage of the city’s distraction during the traditional Vara procession, which drew police and crowds to the center of Messina. According to Corriere della Sera, the group cut through metal fencing along Viale Annunziata to access the museum grounds, then broke through a side door to enter the gallery.
Inside, they smashed a bulletproof glass case to take a small two-sided oil painting on wood, dated 1465–1474. The front depicts the Virgin and Child with a Franciscan friar, and the back shows Christ in the Pietà. The work belonged to Wilhelm Soldan's collection since 1930 and was purchased by Sicily at a Christie’s auction in 2003 after experts confirmed it as an Antonello.
The thieves also dismantled all five remaining wooden panels of the historic San Gregorio polyptych, commissioned in 1473 by Abbot Fabria Cirino for the Monastery of Santa Maria, which was destroyed in the 1908 Messina earthquake. This is the only masterpiece by Antonello still in his hometown. The group took the three most important panels, leaving behind the panels of Saint Benedict and Saint Gregory leaning against a wall near the museum grounds, as reported by Repubblica.
Museum director Marisa Mercurio told ANSA: “We are deeply saddened by what happened. These are two of Antonello da Messina’s most important and famous works.”
Local cultural commissioner Enzo Caruso told Il Tirreno: “No one in Messina could imagine a classic Louvre-style theft.” He also noted that international interest in Antonello’s works had risen after Italy’s Culture Ministry spent $14.9 million to acquire his Ecce Homo earlier this year.
Lynda Albertson, director of the ARCA art crime research organization, told La Repubblica that “stealing an Antonello may be much easier than selling it.” She explained that such famous artworks are rarely sold; they are often traded among criminals for years as leverage for other illegal activities.
Born in Sicily around 1430, Antonello da Messina is considered one of the leading masters of the early Italian Renaissance. Because very few of his works survive, his paintings are regarded as irreplaceable cultural treasures.
The theft in Messina came just days after a separate incident in Parma, northern Italy, where police recovered three stolen works by Renoir, Cezanne, and Matisse, worth about $11.5 million.
