Revealed on
A suspect has been arrested after greater than a dozen items of artwork, together with works by French artist Henri Matisse, had been stolen by armed males from a library within the Brazilian metropolis of São Paulo, authorities mentioned.
A pair of thieves stole eight engravings by Matisse and 5 items by Brazilian painter Cândido Portinari from the Mário de Andrade Library on Sunday morning, in keeping with officers.
The suspects held up a safety guard and an aged couple visiting the library, broke a glass show case and put the artworks in a canvas bag earlier than leaving by means of the primary exit, in keeping with police.
A video printed by Brazilian information outlet G1 appeared to indicate one of many alleged thieves carrying a number of of the artworks by means of the streets, leaving them in opposition to a wall, then working away. The footage couldn’t be independently verified by Euronews.
On Monday, the São Paulo authorities mentioned one of many suspects had been arrested after “investigative work and evaluation of safety cameras that recorded the felony act”. That got here after authorities mentioned that they had discovered the thieves’ getaway automobile.
The theft occurred on the final day of an exhibition titled “From the E book to the Museum”, a collaboration between the library and the Museum of Fashionable Artwork of São Paulo.
Officers haven’t but launched particulars concerning the stolen items or their worth.
The Folha de São Paulo newspaper reported {that a} collage made by Matisse for the limited-edition artwork guide “Jazz” was among the many objects stolen.
The Municipal Secretariat of Tradition and Artistic Financial system mentioned that the stolen items “have cultural, historic, and creative worth, and subsequently can’t be assessed solely in financial phrases”. Artwork critics instructed the BBC that the worth of the works is “incalculable”.
The incident comes lower than two months after thieves stole jewels value €88 million from the Louvre Museum in Paris, in a brazen daylight heist that surprised the artwork world.
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