Four Antonello da Messina artworks worth Rs 690 crore stolen in Sicily

Thieves stole four Renaissance artworks worth about Rs 690 crore from the Museo Regionale di Messina in Sicily on Saturday night, while the town celebrated Assumption Day. The robbers bypassed alarms and security to take three panels of the San Gregorio Polyptych, dated 1473, and a double-sided panel of the Virgin Mary and the dead Christ from an armored display case. They abandoned two other panels outside the museum while fleeing, Livemint reports quoting Reuters.

Art expert Alberto Fiz estimated the stolen works' value at Rs 690 crore. MuMe director Marisa Mercurio called the theft "a tremendous loss for the museum, the city, the community and the art world." Messina's top culture official Enzo Caruso described it as "a disaster" and said Messina without Antonello is "deprived of the very essence of the greatest artist of the European Renaissance." The theft follows Italy's recovery of three other stolen artworks from a Parma museum earlier this year.