On the evening of 29 July 1900, Umberto was assassinated when he was shot four times by the Italo-American anarchist Gaetano Bresci in Monza. Bresci claimed he wanted to avenge the people killed during the Bava-Beccaris massacre.

Umberto was buried in the Pantheon in Rome, by the side of his father Victor Emmanuel II, on 9 August 1900. He was the last Savoy to be buried there, as his son and successor Victor Emmanuel III died in exile and is still buried in Egypt.