Renaissance Artworks Stolen from Sicilian Museum During Holiday

The San Gregorio Polyptych (Alamy/PA)

Four works attributed to Renaissance painter Antonello da Messina were stolen from a regional museum in Messina, Sicily, during Italy’s Ferragosto holiday, according to cultural officials and Italian media.

According to LaPresse, the thieves bypassed the MuMe museum’s alarm and security systems on Saturday evening and escaped with three of the five surviving panels of the 1473 San Gregorio Polyptych, along with a double-sided panel showing the Virgin Mary and the dead Christ in Pietà that had been removed from an armored display case.

Art expert Alberto Fiz estimated that the stolen works were worth between €70 million and €80 million, or about £59.7 million to £68.2 million.

“Stealing an Antonello may be much easier than selling one. If these are ordinary thieves, they will quickly learn that lesson the hard way,” Albertson, chief executive of the ARCA art crimes research association, told the Italian daily La Repubblica. She added that famous artworks like these often move from one criminal group to another and are used as collateral for other illegal activity.