Suspect arrested in theft of Matisse artworks in Brazil: officials

Henri Matisse's 1911 oil painting 'Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose,' (The Cowslips, Blue and Rose Fabric) is seen displayed at the Grand Palais prior to being auctioned. The Matisse painting sold C$55 million. (AP / Remy de la Mauviniere)

A suspect has been arrested in the theft of eight Henri Matisse artworks from a Sao Paolo library, Brazilian authorities said Monday.

The man was apprehended in central Sao Paolo after being “identified following investigative work and analysis of security cameras that recorded the criminal act on Sunday,” the government of the Brazilian state said in a statement.

Earlier on Monday, police said they had identified one of two suspects behind the theft of the engravings by Matisse and found the robbers’ getaway car.

A pair of gunmen stole the late French master’s works, as well as five pieces by the Brazilian painter Candido Portinari, from the Mario de Andrade Library in the centre of the Brazilian mega-city.

Police say the thieves held up a security guard and an elderly couple visiting the library, grabbed the engravings and other items from a glass dome where they were kept, put them in a canvas bag and fled through the main exit.

Sao Paulo’s security department said investigations were ongoing to identify the second suspect.

“The escape vehicle was also located” and sent for forensic analysis, it said in a statement.

Brazilian news site G1 aired a video apparently showing one of the thieves carrying several of the artworks through the street in broad daylight, then leaving them propped against a wall next to a pile of trash and running away.

Sao Paulo has a sophisticated surveillance system that uses security cameras and facial recognition technology.

Stolen on final day

Authorities have yet to disclose the value of the stolen pieces, which were part of a modern art exhibition entitled “From the Book to the Museum,” highlighting a collaboration between the library and the Museum of Modern Art of Sao Paulo.

The theft came on the last day of the exhibit, which opened in October.

Newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo said the pieces on display included cut-paper collages from Matisse’s limited-edition 1947 art book “Jazz,” of which only 300 copies exist worldwide.

Works by Matisse (1869-1954), a towering figure of 20th-century modern art, can sell for millions of dollars.

A series of around 60 of his drawings sold for more than US$2.5 million at auction house Christie’s in October, according to specialty site artnet.

The record price for a Matisse was US$80.8 million in 2018, for his “Odalisque Couchee aux Magnolias.”

The five engravings by Portinari (1903-1962), one of Brazil’s most celebrated painters, were illustrations from the 1959 book “Menino de Engenho” (“Plantation Boy”), according to Sao Paulo city hall.

The art heist comes nearly two months after a group of thieves broke into the Louvre museum in Paris, stealing jewelry valued at around US$100 million within a matter of minutes.

The high-profile break-in renewed focus on security protocols at museums around the world.