Four Antonello da Messina works stolen from Museum in Sicily
Thieves broke into the Museo Regionale di Messina (MuMe) in Sicily on the night of August 15–16, 2026, while the city was distracted by Ferragosto and the "Vara" procession. The thieves bypassed alarm and security systems to make 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 Ecce Homo, which had been removed from an armored display case.
They took all five polyptych panels from their frame but abandoned two of them nearby while fleeing — reportedly because the heavy wooden panels proved harder to handle than expected.
All four stolen works are attributed to Antonello da Messina (c. 1430–1479), a pivotal figure who is considered one of the defining masters of the early Italian Renaissance, credited with introducing Flemish realism and oil-painting technique to Italy — and one of the artists who helped move Italian panel painting beyond the gold-ground tradition. The polyptych was the only work by the painter never to have left his hometown.
Antonello da Messina was born around 1430. His art doesn't start from nothing there: the polyptych format, the enthroned Madonnas, the devotional structure of his panels are all direct inheritances from the gold-ground tradition of the Trecento. He translated that grammar into a new language — oil, light, individualized faces — without abandoning its bones.
Our editorial boundaries were never meant to be rigid. Gold-ground painting doesn't end cleanly in 1430; it dissolves into what follows. A theft striking Messina at exactly that hinge point is a loss worth covering here. And, don’t forget, fame is a stolen painting's curse: the more famous the work, the fewer places it can hide.
Antonello da Messina (1430–1479), San Gregorio Polyptych, 1473, Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
Antonello da Messina, Back-side: Ecce Homo, c. 1465–1474, Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
Antonello da Messina (1430–1479), San Gregorio Polyptych, 1473, Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
Antonello da Messina, Front-side: Madonna and Child, c. 1465–1474, Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
