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Antonello da Messina paintings stolen from Sicilian museum over mafia fears
A Sicilian culture councillor said it is difficult to explain how thieves removed the works within minutes without detailed knowledge of the museum’s layout.
The theft of four paintings by Renaissance artist Antonello da Messina from the Accascina Regional Museum in Messina is being scrutinized as a potential organized crime job, according to a local official cited by SCMP Economy.
Enzo Caruso, Messina’s councillor for culture, said it was hard to understand how thieves could have taken the works in only minutes without detailed knowledge of the museum’s layout, and the incident has revived memories of an earlier Caravaggio painting disappearance in Sicily that was long linked to the Cosa Nostra mafia.
Caruso also said the Antonello works are so famous that selling them even on the black market would be virtually impossible, raising the possibility they could be used as bargaining chips or collateral in criminal dealings.
He added that one concern is the paintings could be leveraged to blackmail the state to secure their return, or used as guarantees or a form of currency within the criminal underworld.