Thieves Steal Four Renaissance Masterpieces in Sicilian Heist
Thieves Steal Four Renaissance Masterpieces in Sicilian Heist
The News
Thieves stole four works attributed to Sicilian Renaissance painter Antonello da Messina from the MuMe regional museum in Messina, Sicily, on Italy's Ferragosto holiday, the news agency LaPresse reported Sunday.
The intruders bypassed the museum's alarm and security systems Saturday evening and took three of the five surviving panels of the San Gregorio Polyptych, dated 1473, along with a double-sided panel showing the Virgin Mary and the dead Christ in Pietà, which was pulled from an armored display case, according to LaPresse.
MuMe director Marisa Mercurio told the ANSA news agency the theft happened just before 10 p.m.
Timeline
The San Gregorio Polyptych is dated to this year. Five of its panels survive; three are now gone.
Thieves hit the Magnani Rocca Foundation in the province of Parma in northern Italy, taking works by Renoir, Cézanne and Matisse.
The Italian government buys a devotional painting by da Messina, "Ecce Homo," for $14.9 million from Sotheby's in New York, raising the early Renaissance painter's profile.
The thieves enter the MuMe museum on Ferragosto, the feast of the Assumption of Mary and the peak of Italy's summer holiday season, and take the four works.
The museum stays closed while investigators gather evidence. LaPresse reports the theft.
Reactions
"We are devastated by what happened. They were two of Antonello da Messina's most important and best-known works. It is a tremendous loss for the museum, the city, the community and the art world," Mercurio told ANSA.
Art-crime analyst Lynda Albertson, chief executive of the ARCA art crimes research association, told the Italian daily La Repubblica that the paintings are too recognizable to move through legitimate channels.
"Stealing an Antonello may be far easier than selling one. If these are ordinary thieves, they will soon discover that — to their cost," Albertson said. She said famous stolen works often pass from one criminal to another and serve as collateral for other illicit activity.
Neither museum officials nor the Carabinieri could immediately be reached for comment.
What's Next
Investigators were still working the scene Sunday with the museum closed to the public. No arrests have been announced and no suspects have been named.
Italian authorities have had recent success on art cases: days before the Messina heist, police in Parma announced they had recovered the three stolen Renoir, Cézanne and Matisse works, valued at about 10 million euros ($11.5 million), and detained five people over that March theft.
More
Antonello da Messina is the Renaissance master most closely identified with the city that was robbed — the heist took the works from the painter's own hometown. The March sale of his "Ecce Homo" to the Italian government for $14.9 million, brokered through Sotheby's in New York, had pushed his market value and public profile higher months before the theft.
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