On the evening of Saturday 15 August 2026, around 9.50 pm, a commando team composed of at least three masked criminals carried out a sensational art theft at the Regional Interdisciplinary Museum of Messina (MuMe), named after the art historian Maria Accascina.
Taking advantage of the city’s distraction, busy celebrating the traditional Vara procession, the thieves entered the structure from a secondary entrance. After having evaded the alarm systems, the video surveillance cameras and the night watchman’s surveillance, the gang raided the precious works on wood signed by the Renaissance master Antonello da Messina.
The stolen works and the incredible abandoned loot
The criminals removed from their armored case a rare double-faced tablet depicting the Madonna and Child blessing on the front and Christ in Pietà on the back, dating back to the period between 1465 and 1474 and purchased by the Sicily Region in 2003 at the Christie’s auction house.
Furthermore, the gang dismembered the famous Polyptych of San Gregorio (commissioned in 1479 by the abbess Fabria Cirino), taking away three of the five surviving panels. During the escape, which took place by tearing down a fence on Viale Annunziata, the thieves left two boards on the external wall, which were then recovered thanks to the report of some passers-by. The director of the facility Marisa Mercurio is dismayed:
We are shocked by what happened, they were two of the most important and well-known works by Antonello da Messina. A great loss for the museum, for the city, the community and the art world.
The trail of the black market and the reactions of the institutions
The investigations, coordinated by the Messina Prosecutor’s Office and conducted by the State Police with the support of the Carabinieri Cultural Heritage Protection Command, point to the trail of private collecting and the international black market. The action of professionals sent on commission is not excluded.
Analyzing the inestimable value of the paintings, the municipal councilor for culture Enzo Caruso expressed strong doubts about the dynamics:
The spotlight turned on recently with the purchase of a work by Antonello for 15 million euros has certainly aroused the interest of many art thieves, it is unimaginable that something like this could happen in Messina, an almost movie-like coup like at the Louvre.
Mayor Federico Basile spoke along the same line of condemnation:
Subtracting works of this value means attacking not only the artistic heritage, but the memory, culture and identity of the Messina community.
A deep wound for the history of Sicilian art
The criminal incursion also aroused deep indignation in the regional administration. The Tourism Councilor of the Sicily Region Elvira Amata underlined the gravity of the gesture for the heritage of the island:
The theft represents an extremely serious event and a deep wound inflicted on the cultural heritage of our city and the whole of Sicily. What happened arouses shock and indignation, especially due to the historical and identity value of the stolen works.
