Mafia link feared in theft of grand master paintings from Sicily museum
The theft of four paintings by Renaissance master Antonello da Messina may have involved organised crime and raised troubling questions about security at a museum in the Sicilian artist’s hometown, a local official said on Monday. Enzo Caruso, Messina’s councillor for culture, said it was difficult to understand how thieves could have removed the works in a matter of minutes without detailed…
The theft of four paintings by Renaissance master Antonello da Messina has sparked speculation about organized crime and security lapses at the museum in Messina, Sicily. Enzo Caruso, the councillor for culture in Messina, stated that it was difficult to comprehend how the thieves could have removed the works within minutes, given their familiarity with the museum layout.
Caruso described the incident as "very, very strange," recalling the 1969 disappearance of a Caravaggio masterpiece from a Palermo church, which remains unsolved and is linked to Sicily's Mafia. He suggested that the high value of the stolen paintings could render them unsellable on the black market, leading the criminals to use them as leverage or collateral.
Caruso speculated that the thieves might be concealing the paintings temporarily while the public attention calms down or that they may have taken a direct sea route, given the museum's proximity to the Strait of Messina. The museum's video surveillance and alarm systems were reportedly functioning correctly at the time of the heist.
Sicily's President, Renato Schifani, affirmed that an internal investigation was underway to determine if any museum staff were implicated. The Italian art police are en route to Messina to tackle the case, following their recent success in recovering stolen works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri Matisse, and Paul Cezanne.
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