Four Antonello da Messina paintings stolen in his Sicilian hometown

Four Renaissance paintings by the master artist Antonello da Messina were stolen from a museum in his Sicilian hometown after thieves bypassed security systems during Italy's peak summer holiday. The theft occurred at the Museo Regionale di Messina on the evening of Saturday, August 15, during Ferragosto celebrations.

Authorities confirmed that the thieves entered the museum around 10 p.m. local time, evading alarms and security. They forced open a protected display case to remove the artworks. Three of the stolen pieces are panels from Antonello's 1473 altarpiece, the Polittico di San Gregorio. This work is considered one of the artist's most important, and its loss deprives Messina of his only major painting to have remained in his native city. The original altarpiece was created for the Monastero di San Gregorio, which was destroyed in the 1908 Messina earthquake. The five surviving panels were housed in the regional museum.

The fourth stolen artwork is a small, doublesided devotional panel. It depicts the Virgin and Child with a Franciscan monk on one side and Christ on the other. This painting was acquired by the Sicilian regional government through a Christie's auction in...