Renaissance paintings stolen from Sicily museum

Four Renaissance paintings attributed to Antonello da Messina have been stolen from a museum in Sicily, prompting outrage from Italian officials and a police investigation into how thieves entered without setting off alarms.

Italy’s culture minister, Alessandro Giuli, said the works, taken Saturday night from the Regional Interdisciplinary Museum of Messina, were of “extraordinary value” to the country’s cultural heritage. The stolen pieces include three panels from the Polyptych of San Gregorio and a double-sided panel known as the Madonna with Child and Christ in Pietà, also described as The Madonna and Child.

Giuli expressed “dismay and regret” after the theft, calling the missing works “extraordinary value for our cultural heritage.”

Police are investigating how the thieves got into the museum without triggering its alarms and who may have been responsible, the BBC reported. Italian news agency Ansa reported that investigators are working on an initial suspicion that the paintings were stolen to order by black market art thieves.

The museum’s director, Marisa Mercurio, told Ansa the theft is believed to have happened at about 9:50 p.m. local time Saturday. “We are shocked by what happened,” she said, describing it as “a great loss for the museum, for the city, the community and the art world.”

Ansa reported that the double-sided Madonna and Christ in Pietà panel was removed directly from a secure display case. All of the stolen paintings were on wooden panels, making them difficult to roll up.

The San Gregorio Polyptych, painted in 1473, originally consisted of at least five sections and was damaged in the 1908 earthquake. According to the BBC, the surviving panels depict the Virgin Mary holding the infant Jesus Christ, flanked by St. Gregory and St. Benedict, with several angels. The work was commissioned for the monastery of Santa Maria.

The double-sided panel was painted around the same period, though the exact date is unclear, the BBC reported. One side shows the infant Christ blessing a follower while being held by the Virgin Mary, and the other depicts the adult Christ in death. Its small size suggests it was used for private worship. CBS News reported that The Madonna and Child is listed on Christie’s website as having sold for more than $300,000 in 2003.

Antonello da Messina was born and raised in Sicily and became one of the early Renaissance period’s master painters.

Messina Mayor Federico Basile called the theft a “heinous criminal act” and said he was “deeply outraged,” particularly because it occurred during the city’s traditional celebrations honoring the Virgin Mary.

“A heritage belonging to all the people of Messina has been violated,” Basile said, according to the BBC. In a social media post cited by CBS News, he added: “We hope that those responsible will be identified and that our artworks will be returned home. Messina will not let its history be stolen.”

The theft follows other high-profile art crimes in Europe. The BBC reported that Italy’s specialist art crime unit recently recovered three works by Cézanne, Renoir and Matisse stolen from a museum near Parma earlier this year, with a combined value of €9 million, or £7.8 million. The BBC also reported that concerns over museum security grew after thieves broke into the Louvre in Paris late last year and escaped with €88 million worth of historic jewelry.

CBS News reported that the Messina theft also comes months after the Italian state bought Antonello da Messina’s “Ecce Homo” at a New York auction for nearly $15 million.