Works by Renaissance artist stolen from museum in Sicily

Four priceless works by the artist Antonello da Messina have been stolen from the Regional Museum (MuMe) of the city on the island of Sicily, 1news.az reports citing TASS.

According to the management of the cultural institution, the intruders who broke into the museum the previous evening took away four wooden panels — three of the five panels of the San Gregorio polyptych and a double-sided painting on wood depicting the Mother of God and Christ.

The second work was kept in a special protected display case. "Unidentified persons broke into the museum on the evening of August 15, disabling the protection system and the alarm, broke open the special display case with the double-sided panel, and removed three of the five panels from the San Gregorio polyptych," the museum's statement says. Specialists are working at the scene and say that the criminals did not have enough time to remove the polyptych entirely.

The polyptych was created for a local monastery. The work was badly damaged, including after the 1908 earthquake, and it has been restored repeatedly.

The double-sided panel with the Madonna and Child on one side and Christ was acquired from the major auction house Christie's in London, the newspaper La Repubblica specifies.

Antonello da Messina (circa 1429–1479) is the greatest Sicilian artist of the early Renaissance. For many years his works did not leave the island, and only in the current century did they begin to be taken abroad for exhibitions. In total, about 40 works by the painter have survived. Recently, the drawing on wood "Christ Crowned with Thorns" (Ecce Homo) was bought for 12 million dollars from the auction house Sotheby's.