Antonello da Messina theft wounds Sicilian heritage as South counts cost

Four of the most important surviving works by the 15th-century Renaissance master Antonello da Messina were stolen overnight from the Museo Regionale in the Sicilian port city of Messina, during the August 15 national holiday, according to the Guardian. The thieves took three panels from his Polittico di San Gregorio, depriving the city of part of the only surviving works by the painter still held in his hometown, France 24 reported.

The theft was described by officials as a wound to the historical memory and cultural identity of the city, the Guardian reported. The BBC noted that the works were taken without alarms being triggered, raising suspicion of a professional operation, and that the paintings are considered extraordinary examples of the master's output.

The heist comes just days after Italian police recovered three paintings by Cézanne, Renoir and Matisse worth more than €9 million, stolen in March from a private museum near Parma, with five Moldovan suspects detained, according to France 24 and the Guardian. That recovery had briefly reassured a country still shaken by the earlier loss.