Sensational art theft on the evening of August 15th at MuMe, the Regional Interdisciplinary Museum of Messina. Thieves managed to enter the exhibition rooms by evading the alarm systems and security protections, managing to steal masterpieces attributed to the master Antonello da Messina. The criminals acted with precision, taking away three out of five panels belonging to the famous Polyptych of San Gregorio and the two-faced panel with the Madonna and Christ in mercy, extracted and removed directly from inside an armored case. The police forces immediately intervened on site together with forensic specialists, who began technical investigations to reconstruct the dynamics of the break-in and collect useful elements to identify those responsible. The MuMe Management has ordered the closure of the museum to the public today.
The director of the museum: «Shocked, they were among the most important works»
«We are shocked by what happened, they were two of Antonello da Messina's most important and well-known works. A great loss for the museum, for the city, the community and the art world." The director of the regional museum of Messina Marisa Mercurio said this. «There are ongoing investigations by the police and we hope they will be able to arrest those responsible. The theft occurred yesterday around 9.50pm. Unfortunately they managed to evade the alarm systems and all the security systems."
"Alarms and cameras were working." Two panels of the Polyptych left by the thieves outside the museum
«Alarms and cameras were working. We were notified by the police that they had recovered two boards. We are shocked and hope to have them back. I arrived immediately and we made this bitter discovery. We hope that these works, which constitute the visiting card for this museum, will be recovered." So again Marisa Mercurio. Two of the panels were later recovered on the external wall of the Museum, from where it is assumed that the thieves fled.
The mayor: «Disconcerted, the works belong to the history of the city»
«The Municipality of Messina expresses deep concern and dismay at the serious theft of art that occurred on the evening of August 15th inside the Accascina Museum, where unknown persons entered the exhibition rooms and managed to steal four precious works attributed to Antonello da Messina. Three of the five surviving panels of the famous Polyptych of San Gregorio and the two-faced tablet with the Madonna and Christ in mercy were taken away, the latter removed directly from inside an armored case. The incursion takes on a particularly serious significance also due to the moment in which it was carried out. The criminals acted precisely in the hours in which the traditional Procession of the Vara, after crossing the streets of the city centre, had just concluded its journey in Piazza Duomo. This year's was a Vara profoundly marked by respect and pain for the victims of the tragic collapse of Pistunina and of all the broken lives that have marked this beginning of the year. The city clung to the memory of the missing people and experienced one of its most identifying moments with particular composure and participation." Thus, in a note, the Messina administration commented on yesterday's theft at the MuMe.
«What happened is a very serious and deeply reprehensible fact – says the mayor Federico Basile – It is even more painful to note that a criminal act of this gravity was committed at the very time in which the Vara had just concluded its journey in Piazza Duomo, at the end of a day that this year the city lived in the name of respect, memory and pain for the victims of the Pistunina collapse, for the young lives lost in the road accidents that marked this 2026 and, more generally, for all the victims and for those who lost their lives too soon. On a day so deeply linked to our identity and our community, such a gesture hurts the sensitivity of Messina and its people even more." «La Vara represents one of the deepest expressions of Messina's identity – continues the Mayor – and Antonello da Messina represents another equally strong and recognized identity element in the world. Subtracting works of this value from the city means attacking not only the artistic heritage, but the memory, culture and very identity of the Messina community. It is an act that we condemn with absolute firmness."
