Four artworks by the 15th-century Renaissance painter Antonello da Messina were stolen overnight from the Museo Regionale di Messina, according to Italian media reports. The theft occurred on the night of August 15, a national holiday in Italy.
The stolen works include three panels from the altarpiece known as Polittico di San Gregorio. Originally comprising six panels for a local monastery, the altarpiece was the only work by the Sicilian painter to have remained in his native city. The thieves also took a small, two-sided painting depicting the Virgin with Child and a Franciscan monk on one side, and Christ on the other, which had been housed in a secure display case.
This painting was part of the Wilhelm Soldan collection and was acquired by the Sicilian Region in 2003. Antonello da Messina, born around 1430, trained in Naples and was influenced by Provençal and Flemish artists before returning to Messina, where he worked until 1474.
The theft comes shortly after Italian police recovered three paintings by masters Paul Cezanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Henri Matisse that had been stolen in March from a museum near Parma.