Renaissance masterpiece stolen from Sicilian museum in brazen daylight robbery

Messina mystery: theft of Renaissance art from Sicilian museum leaves investigators baffled

How did thieves pull off robbery of Antonello da Messina’s 15th-century masterpiece – and why did they leave part of it behind? At about 8.47pm on the evening of 15 August, while tens of thousands of worshippers filled the streets of central Messina for a religious festival, at least two men cut through the fencing surrounding the regional museum, located a few miles to the north on the outskirts of the Sicilian harbour city. Capitalising on the fact that the streets around the museum were un...

By Lorenzo Tondo in Messina