Thieves steal 4 Renaissance artworks in a Sicilian museum heist during
an Italian holiday
[August 17, 2026]
By COLLEEN BARRY
MILAN (AP) — Thieves stole four works attributed to Renaissance painter
Antonello da Messina worth millions of euros from the regional museum in
the city of Messina in Sicily while crowds gathered across town for the
traditional Assumption holiday celebrations, cultural officials and
Italian media said Sunday.
The thieves bypassed alarm and security systems on Saturday evening at
the MuMe museum, making off with three of the five surviving panels of
the San Gregorio Polyptych, dated to 1473, as well as the double-sided
panel depicting the Virgin Mary and the dead Christ in Pietà, which was
removed from an armored display case, the news agency LaPresse reported.
They removed all five panels of the San Gregorio Polyptych from their
frame, but abandoned two behind a wall while fleeing.
Art expert Alberto Fiz estimated the value of the stolen works at 70
million euros ($81 million) to 80 million euros ($92 million).
“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,” MuMe
director Marisa Mercurio told the ANSA news agency.
Mercurio said the theft occurred just before 10 p.m., and that the
alarms were working and the guards were on site. She described the works
as central to the region's heritage.
“These are not merely works by Antonello da Messina,” she told Sky TG24.
“They are works that hold considerable significance in terms of our
identity, as well as, of course, their artistic and cultural value,
because they are works by our very own Antonello da Messina.”
Messina’s top culture official, Enzo Caruso, called the theft “more than
a loss” and “a disaster.”
“Messina without Antonello is deprived of the very essence of the
greatest artist of the European Renaissance,” Caruso told Sky, calling
for the swift recovery of the stolen works.
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A journalist browses the Messina museum website showing a picture of
the Early Renaissance painter Antonello da Messina's artwork where
three of the five panels belonging to the Polyptych of San Gregorio
and the double-sided panel with the Madonna and the Christ in Pietà,
stolen from the Sicilian museum on Aug. 15, in Rome, Sunday, Aug.
16, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Caruso noted that international interest in the artist had
intensified since Italy’s Culture Ministry acquired Antonello’s
devotional painting “Ecce Homo” for $14.9 million through
negotiations with Sotheby’s in New York earlier this year.
Lynda Albertson, an art-crime analyst, said the works are instantly
recognizable, impeding any effort to sell them through reputable
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, who is the chief executive of the ARCA art crimes
research association, told the Italian daily La Repubblica. She said
such famous artworks often pass from one criminal to another,
serving as collateral for other illicit activity.
The museum was closed Sunday while investigators gathered evidence.
Neither museum officials nor the Carabinieri could immediately be
reached for comment.
The Ferragosto holiday, which marks the feast of the Assumption of
Mary, marks the height of the Italian summer holiday season, and was
being celebrated in Messina with a procession that culminated in
prayers and a blessing in the main Piazza Duomo around the time of
the heist.
The theft comes just days after police in the northern Italian city
of Parma announced that they had recovered three stolen artworks by
Renoir, Cézanne and Matisse worth about 10 million euros ($11.5
million). Five people have been detained in the March 22-23 theft
from the Magnani Rocca Foundation in Parma province.
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