Renaissance masterpieces were stolen from a Sicilian museum

Renaissance masterpieces were stolen from Sicily's Regional Museum of Messina, also known as MuMem, on Saturday evening as the port city celebrated Ferragosto. Thieves evaded security and took three of five surviving wood panels from Antonello da Messina's Polittico di San Gregorio altarpiece, plus a smaller double-sided painting. Museum director Marisa Mercurio told the Guardian the overnight raid was an extremely serious loss of works with enormous cultural, artistic, and symbolic importance for Messina and Sicily.

Key Takeaways

• Thieves broke into MuMem during Ferragosto and stole three of five surviving Antonello da Messina altarpiece panels.
• A fourth, smaller double-sided painting of the Virgin and Child with a Franciscan monk, and Christ on the reverse, was also taken.
• Two of the five altarpiece panels were found abandoned against a wall outside the museum.
• The Polittico di San Gregorio is the only Antonello still held by his home city after the 1908 earthquake.

Which works were taken from the Sicilian museum?

Assailants took three wood panels that once formed a six-piece altarpiece known as the Polittico di San Gregorio, a seminal work in Antonello da Messina's oeuvre and in art history. Authorities found two of the five surviving altarpiece panels abandoned against a wall outside the museum.

They also took a fourth, smaller work depicting the Virgin and Child attended by a Franciscan monk on one side and Christ on the other. Christie's sold that double-sided painting to the Sicilian regional government in 2003, during the Wilhelm Soldan collection auction, shortly after its attribution to Antonello.

Robb Report reported that the thieves broke into MuMem and evaded the museum's security system. Mercurio said all the museum can do now is hope the works are recovered as soon as possible.

Why does this Renaissance theft matter for Sicily?

Born sometime in 1430, Antonello is credited as the key link between the northern and southern Renaissance schools. His style was shaped by Provençal and Flemish artists, including Jan van Eyck. Contemporary sources said the Flemish master taught him oil-painting techniques that produced a soft inner glow not yet employed in Italy.

The altarpiece was created for the Monastero di San Gregorio, destroyed in the 1908 Messina earthquake, and remains the only work by the painter still held by his home city. Mercurio called the overnight theft a wound inflicted on Messina's historical memory and cultural identity.

"These were works that had survived the earthquake, destruction and five centuries of history," she said. "To see them taken from the public in this way makes the loss impossible to measure in purely economic terms."

In February, the Italian government acquired a prized Antonello portrait titled Ecco Homo at Sotheby's in New York for $14.9 million. Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli hailed its return as "a historic moment" and "an unprecedented cultural operation."

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