HOLIDAY HEIST

Thieves Pull Off Brazen Heist of Renaissance Artworks in Sicily

They managed to evade the museum’s alarm and security systems.

Thieves stole four works by Sicilian Renaissance painter Antonello da Messina from the MuMe regional museum in Sicily during Ferragosto, a major Italian public holiday. On Saturday evening, just before 10 p.m., they evaded the museum’s alarm and security systems and made off with three of the five surviving panels of the 1473 San Gregorio Polyptych, and a double-sided Virgin Mary and Pietà panel taken from an armored display case, according to the news agency LaPresse. “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 said. Lynda Albertson, an art-crime analyst for the Association for Research into Crimes against Art, said the works will be difficult for thieves to sell because they are instantly recognizable. “Stealing an Antonello may be far easier than selling one. If these are ordinary thieves, they will soon discover that — to their cost,” she said. She added that such famous artworks are often used as collateral for other illicit activity. In March, the Italian government bought Messina’s “Ecce Homo” from Sotheby’s in New York, boosting the profile of the early Renaissance painter.