In a shocking overnight heist, four masterpieces by iconic 15th-century artist Antonello da Messina were whisked away from the Museo Regionale di Messina. The museum’s leadership, as reported by Italian media, has confirmed the art theft, leaving a cultural void in the artist’s homeland.
This brazen theft erases from Messina the only existing collection of the renowned Renaissance painter’s works still housed in his birthplace, along with a diminutive artwork acquired by Sicily two decades prior.
When contacted by Reuters, a museum representative was unavailable to share any additional details regarding the incident.
Reports indicate that these art burglars exploited the national holiday on August 15 to carry out their plan. This date coincides with the summer’s peak activity in Italy, providing advantageous cover for the crime.
The culprits made off with three of the five remaining pieces from the famed Polittico di San Gregorio altarpiece.
Originally comprising six panels and destined for a local monastery known as Monastero San Gregorio, which was destroyed by Messina’s 1908 earthquake, the altarpiece was the only work by the Sicilian painter to have never left his hometown.
The thieves took a fourth artwork from a secure display case: a small two-sided painting depicting the Virgin with Child and a Franciscan monk on one side and the Christ on the other.
The work was part of the Wilhelm Soldan collection and was sold by Christie’s to the Sicilian Region in 2003, the year it was attributed to Antonello da Messina.
The theft took place after Italian police on Friday recovered three paintings by French masters Paul Cezanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Henri Matisse that were stolen from a museum near the northern city of Parma in March.
Born around 1430, Antonello da Messina trained in Naples where he studied the works of Provençal and Flemish artists, whose influence is apparent in his works.
He returned to Messina in 1457, where he worked until 1474.