Four Renaissance paintings of “extraordinary value” have been stolen from a museum in Sicily, Italy’s culture minister has said.
Alessandro Giuli confirmed that three panels of the Polyptych of San Gregorio and a double-sided panel of the Madonna with Child and Christ in Pietà, all attributed to Antonello da Messina, were taken from the Regional Interdisciplinary Museum of Messina on Saturday night.
Police are now probing how the thieves were able to enter the museum without triggering its alarms and who may have been responsible.
The incident is the latest in a string of museum heists across Europe that have led to a growing number of priceless works disappearing from public view.
Investigators are working on the initial suspicion that the paintings were stolen to order by black market art thieves, according to Italian news agency Ansa.
It reported that the Madonna and Christ in Pietà was removed directly from inside a secure display case, while all the paintings taken were on wooden panels, preventing them from easily being rolled up.
The museum’s director Marisa Mercurio said the theft was thought to have occurred around 21:50 local time (19:50 GMT) on Saturday.
“We are shocked by what happened,” she told Ansa, describing it as “a great loss for the museum, for the city, the community and the art world”.
Antonello da Messina was a 15th Century painter born and raised on Sicily, who would go on to become one of the early Renaissance period’s master painters.
His San Gregorio Polyptych, painted in 1473, depicts the Virgin Mary holding an infant Jesus Christ, flanked by St Gregory and St Benedict as well as several angels.
The artwork, of which five panels survive, was commissioned for the monastery of Santa Maria.
Meanwhile, his double-panel showing an infant Christ blessing a follower while being held by the Virgin Mary on one side and an adult Christ in death on the other was painted around the same time, though exactly when is unclear.
Its small size suggests it was originally used for private worship.
Federico Basile, the mayor of Messina, said he was “deeply outraged” by the “heinous criminal act”.
“A heritage belonging to all the people of Messina has been violated,” he said. “Messina will not let its history be stolen.”
The theft comes just days after Italy’s specialist art crime unit announced it had recovered three artworks stolen from a museum near Parma earlier this year.
The paintings by Cézanne, Renoir and Matisse had a combined worth of €9m (£7.8m) and were taken by a gang in a matter of minutes, with the museum’s alarm system preventing them from taking more.
The security of priceless artworks and artefacts in European museums was thrown into question late last year when a gang of thieves broke into the Louvre in Paris in broad daylight, making off with €88m worth of historic jewellery.
