Italian Minister of Culture Alessandro Joli announced today Sunday the theft of four paintings by the Italian artist Antonello da Messina (fifteenth century) from the regional museum in the city of Messina, the artist’s hometown, in an operation that occurred during the night of Friday-Saturday, coinciding with a national holiday, and sparked widespread shock and condemnation. The thieves seized 3 of the 5 paintings that made up the huge artwork "Politico di San Gregorio", the only work by Antonello to remain in the city of his birth, after the work, which originally consisted of 6 panels, was intended for a local monastery destroyed by the Messina earthquake in 1908. They also stole a fourth painting from a secured display cabinet. It is a small, double-sided painting depicting the Virgin Mary and the Child, a monk on one side, and Christ on the other. It was part of the Wilhelm Soldan collection, and Christie’s sold it to the Sicilian region in 2003, the same year in which the work was attributed to Antonello. The Corriere della Sera website quoted the local council member responsible for culture, Enzo Caruso, as saying, “It is like a scene from a movie,” noting that the Italian state’s purchase of an artwork by Antonello da Messina for $15 million earlier this year may have drawn the attention of criminals to the Messina Museum. The painting referred to as being purchased by the Italian state, which is another double-sided painting known as “Ecchi Homo,” was purchased by the Italian Ministry of Culture from Sotheby’s in February.