On Saturday night, four extraordinary Renaissance masterpieces — three panels of the 1473 San Gregorio Polyptych and a double‑sided Madonna and Child / Christ in Pietà — vanished from Italy’s Regional Interdisciplinary Museum of Messina.
The theft, occurring around 21:50 local time (19:50 GMT), shows that the thieves bypassed alarms, suggesting a planned operation that targeted works attributed to famed 15th‑century painter Antonello da Messina.
The museum’s director, Marisa Mercurio, described the loss as “a great loss for the museum, the city, the community and the art world.” The mayor, Federico Basile, echoed her sentiment, calling the act “heinous” and pledging that Messina would “not let its history be stolen.”
Italian police are probing how the thieves accessed the site without triggering its security system and whether they were acting on orders from black‑market art traffickers, as reported by the news agency Ansa.
The Polyptych’s panels, once housed in the monastery of Santa Maria, depict the Virgin Mary holding infant Jesus, flanked by St. Gregory and St. Benedict, while the stolen double‑panel juxtaposes a youthful Christ blesses a devotee on one side and the dead Christ on the other.
The theft follows a string of museum heists across Europe, including recoveries in Parma this year and the infamous 2023 Louvre incident that saw €88 million worth of historic jewellery disappear in daylight.
As investigators near a conclusion, the event underscores a growing concern over the security of priceless European artworks and the lucrative black‑market that fuels their theft.
