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

30 August 2026 at 07:00

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 unusually quiet, the men forced open a side door with a crowbar, gaining direct access to a display case containing the five surviving panels of the Renaissance master Antonello da Messina’s polyptych Polittico di San Gregorio, his most important work, and a small double-sided painting. Undisturbed, they removed the works from the building and fled.

Critics Blast Metropolitan Museum’s Plan to Honor John Galliano

NYT > Top Stories

By: Vanessa Friedman and Jacob Bernstein

29 August 2026 at 02:47

Galliano, a fashion industry giant championed by Anna Wintour, was found guilty of a hate crime for his antisemitic outbursts in 2011.

The designer John Galliano at a fashion industry event in London in 2021.

She Filmed the Towers That Morning. 25 Years Later, She Finally Watched.

NYT > Top Stories

By: Steven Kurutz

28 August 2026 at 20:05

A young college graduate filmed the World Trade Center attack from the fire escape of her Chinatown apartment. For many years, she avoided looking at the footage.

Thuc Doan Nguyen-Brophy, visiting the apartment where she lived on Sept. 11, 2001, for the first time in 25 years.

London Science Museum cuts links with BP after decades of partnership

The Guardian

By: Pippa Neill Environment reporter

28 August 2026 at 19:57

Campaigners say ‘seismic shift’ follows years of pressure to sever ties with oil and gas firm

The London Science Museum has ended its decades-long partnership with the oil and gas company BP in what has been described as a “seismic shift” for the museum.

The Science Museum Group academy, which was established in 2018 to provide training and resources, announced on Friday that it would be ending its partnership with BP. In a statement, the director and chief executive of the Science Museum Group, Sir Ian Blatchford, said the partnership had “drawn to a close at the end of the current contract term”.

Egyptian queen’s 673-diamond necklace stolen in Vienna smash-and-grab raid

The Guardian

By: Deborah Cole in Berlin

28 August 2026 at 17:46

Police hunt two suspects after historic 200-carat piece is snatched from Austrian museum during opening hours

Austrian police are hunting two men alleged to have stolen a 200-carat platinum necklace encrusted with 673 diamonds that was on loan to a museum in Vienna and once belonged to Egyptian royalty.

Authorities in the capital released pictures of the suspects captured by security cameras during the heist at the Museum of Applied Arts (MAK), amid a rash of spectacular smash-and-grab thefts from European cultural institutions.

Egyptian queen’s 673-diamond necklace stolen in Vienna smash-and-grab raid

World news | The Guardian

By: Deborah Cole in Berlin

28 August 2026 at 17:25

Police hunt two suspects after historic 200-carat piece is snatched from Austrian museum during opening hours

Austrian police are hunting two men alleged to have stolen a 200-carat platinum necklace encrusted with 673 diamonds that was on loan to a museum in Vienna and once belonged to Egyptian royalty.

Authorities in the capital released pictures of the suspects captured by security cameras during the heist at the Museum of Applied Arts (MAK), amid a rash of spectacular smash-and-grab thefts from European cultural institutions.

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