Four works by Renaissance painter Antonello da Messina were stolen from a museum in Sicily on Saturday evening, the Italian Culture Ministry announced on Sunday.
The stolen pieces notably include three panels from the 15th-century Polyptych of Saint Gregory, which the culture ministry described as holding exceptional financial and historical value.
The theft occurred on the evening of August 15 at a museum in Messina, a coastal city in northeastern Sicily that was the artist's birthplace. Ministry officials noted that the exact method used to breach the museum has not yet been determined.
Theft during local religious celebrations
Messina Mayor Federico Basile denounced the crime as deeply reprehensible. He added that the loss was all the more painful because the thieves struck during the city's traditional annual festivities held in honor of the Virgin Mary.
Antonello da Messina was a key figure of the Italian Renaissance during the 15th century, renowned for introducing Netherlands-style oil painting techniques to Italian artists. Polyptychs, which consist of multiple painted wooden panels joined together, were among the most prominent forms of devotional art in Renaissance churches.
Recent acquisitions and Italian art crime
The theft in Sicily comes only a few months after the Italian state purchased another painting by Antonello da Messina, titled Ecce Homo, at an auction in New York. The Italian government paid nearly 15 million dollars, or 13 million euros, to secure the work for its national heritage collection.
Art thefts are a frequent occurrence in Italy, where vast historic collections are spread across regional museums. Just two days prior to the announcement in Sicily, Italian police announced that they had recovered three valuable paintings by French masters Paul Cézanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Henri Matisse.
Those three French impressionist and modern paintings, worth more than nine million euros combined, were stolen in March from a museum near Parma in northern Italy. Investigators stated that the Parma robbery was carried out by a suspected gang of Moldovan nationals.
