Thieves snatch four Renaissance paintings in Sicily

Thieves stole four Renaissance paintings worth millions from a regional museum on the island of Sicily over the weekend. The criminals made off with works by Antonello da Messina housed at a museum in the city of Messina, Mayor Federico Basile said Sunday. They swiped the paintings while local law enforcement officers were busy with celebrations for the Catholic Assumption holiday, he said. The criminals robbed the city of its history and heritage, Basile added.

Art expert Alberto Fiz estimated the value of the stolen pieces between $81 million and $92 million, according to the Associated Press.

What works were stolen? The bandits took three panels of the Polyptych of San Gregorio and a two-faced tablet with Madonna and Christ, according to Alessandro Giuli, Italy’s culture minister. All paintings were by da Messina, one of the early master painters of the Renaissance period, who was born in Sicily in the 15th century.

How was the crime carried out? The robbers entered the museum without triggering its alarm system late Saturday evening, museum director Marisa Mercurio told local news outlet Ansa. They avoided the guards on site while removing the Madonna painting and all five panels of the San Gregorio Polyptych from their frame. The thieves later abandoned two of the five panels behind a wall while fleeing, Mercurio said.

The crooks will have a hard time selling such high-profile works of art, Lynda Albertson, the head of an art crimes research association, told La Repubblica. Instead, art pieces like these might be traded in the criminal underworld as leverage for other illegal activities, she said.

Dig deeper: Listen to Emma Eicher’s report for The World and Everything in It on how the theft of the Mona Lisa transformed it into the world’s most famous painting.