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A Daring Antonello da Messina Heist Raises New Questions About Museum Security

Thieves stole four works by the Renaissance master from a museum in Messina in just minutes, adding to a recent string of high-profile art heists targeting increasingly valuable cultural property.

The media attention generated by the Italian government’s acquisition in February of a rare Ecce Homo and Saint Jerome in Penitence panel by Renaissance master Antonello da Messina may have had unintended consequences. The state paid $14.9 million for the work through Sotheby’s—a rare move for the government—which likely brought renewed attention to the extraordinary economic value of works by the Renaissance master still held in Italian museums as part of the country’s priceless cultural heritage.

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Around 9 p.m. on the night of Ferragosto, the August 15 national holiday that is essentially Italy’s Labor Day, a group of thieves took advantage of police attention being focused on the annual procession of La Vara, Messina’s huge and widely attended religious festival, to steal a group of masterpieces from MuMe, the Museo Regionale Interdisciplinare di Messina.

Bypassing the alarm systems, the thieves forced open a........

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