Stolen Matisse artworks recovered by police in Brazil
A man is arrested after eight works by the French artist are found at a home in greater São Paulo.
Eight Henri Matisse illustrations, valued at approximately $200,000, and five Candido Portinari engravings were stolen from Biblioteca Mário de Andrade in São Paulo, Brazil on December 7th. The artworks, part of an exhibition titled "From Book to Museum," were targeted on the exhibition's final day. Two thieves overpowered a security guard and an elderly couple, then fled with the stolen pieces through the library's main entrance.
Three others were previously arrested in connection with the theft, but five engravings by Portinari remain missing. The stolen Matisse and Portinari works were part of a joint exhibition with the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art. The thieves have not yet been apprehended, but a 44-year-old man suspected of storing the stolen Matisse pieces on behalf of the alleged thieves was arrested on Thursday at a home in São Bernardo do Campo, a suburb south of São Paulo.
Police suspect the man of illegal firearm possession as well. Brazilian media reports suggest a prolific art thief named Laéssio Rodrigues de Oliveira, 53, planned and directed the crime and has been in custody since April. The stolen Matisse illustrations and Portinari engravings have since been recovered from the suspect's home.
The Matisse works, created for the limited-edition art book "Jazz," and the Portinari engravings, originally intended for a special edition of a Brazilian novel, are considered priceless by critics and historians.
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