Theft of works by Antonello da Messina at the MuMe

The works by Antonello da Messina stolen from the MuMe are three of the five surviving panels of the Polyptych of San Gregorio, signed and dated 1473, as well as a rare double-faced panel with the Madonna and Child and the Christ in Pietà. The theft affects a group of works of particular importance for the history of Sicilian Renaissance painting. The Polyptych of San Gregorio is in fact the only work by Antonello remaining in his hometown. Created in 1473 for the monastery annexed to the church of Santa Maria extra moenia, the work was originally composed of six panels, gathered together in a wooden structure which was later lost. Over time the complex was dismembered and one of the panels was lost: there were therefore five panels left before the theft.

The subtraction of three of these represents a new and serious mutilation of a work that had already reached the present day in fragmentary form. The provenance from the monastery of San Gregorio is documented and directly links the work to the religious and artistic history of fifteenth-century Messina. The polyptych also bears the artist's signature and date on a scroll located in the central panel.

Together with the three panels, a small panel painted on both sides was stolen, a small work intended for private devotion. On one side the Madonna with the Blessing Child and a Franciscan in adoration is depicted, on the other the Christ in Pietà. The tablet also has a particular collecting history: it was attributed to Antonello in 2003 and in the same year it was sold by Christie's to the Sicilian Region, coming from the collection of Wilhelm Soldan.