4 artworks of 17th century painter Antonello da Messina stolen from Italy museum

The theft has stripped Messina of parts of a rare Renaissance masterpiece that remained in the painter's hometown, along with another Antonello da Messina work acquired by the Sicilian Region two decades ago.The five surviving panels of Antonello da Messina’s 1473 Polittico di San Gregorio, three of which were stolen from the Museo Regionale Accascina in Messina, Italy. Four artworks by 15th-century painter Antonello da Messina were stolen overnight from the Museo Regionale di Messina, Italy’s culture minister said on Sunday.The theft deprives Messina of parts of the only surviving work by the Renaissance painter still in his native city, as well as a small painting acquired by the Sicilian Region two decades ago.“I’ve learnt of the theft with shock and sadness,” Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli said in a statement.The thieves entered the museum overnight on August 15, a national holiday in Italy, Italian media reported. A museum official contacted by Reuters said they could not provide any information.“It was almost out of a movie,” Enzo Caruso, a local councillor in charge of culture, was quoted as saying by the Corriere della Sera website. Caruso said the purchase of an Antonello da Messina artwork by the Italian state for $15 million earlier this year may have put the Messina museum on the criminals’ radar.The thieves took three of the five remaining panels that made up an altarpiece known as the Polittico di San Gregorio.Originally comprising six panels, the altarpiece was destined for a local monastery that was destroyed by Messina’s 1908 earthquake. It was the only work by the Sicilian painter that had never left his hometown.The thieves also 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 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.In February, Italy’s culture ministry bought another two-sided painting, known as Ecce Homo, from Sotheby’s, just before it was due to go to auction.Born around 1430, Antonello da Messina trained in Naples, where he studied the works of Provenal and Flemish artists, whose influence is apparent in his paintings.He returned to Messina in 1457, where he worked until 1474.The Messina theft came after Italian police on Friday recovered three paintings by French masters Paul Czanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Henri Matisse that had been stolen from a museum near the northern city of Parma in March.- EndsWith inputs from ReutersPublished On: Aug 16, 2026 17:58 IST