Stolen Picassos, Portinaris returned
SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) - January 9, 2008 The paintings, worth millions of dollars, were recovered Tuesday
when a suspect led police to a house on the outskirts of Sao Paulo,
said chief police inspector Mauricio Lemos Freire.
A helicopter and more than a dozen police vehicles escorted the
small truck carrying Picasso's "Portrait of Suzanne Bloch" by
Picasso and "O Lavrador de Cafe" by Portinari, an influential
Brazilian artist, back to the Sao Paulo Museum of Art.
Museum employees and onlookers applauded when the paintings
arrived.
Two suspects were in custody and the Estado de S. Paulo
newspaper reported they had been promised a total of $2.8 million
for the heist.
The newspaper also said museum officials received two ransom
requests for the paintings, including a letter asking for $10
million. Freire and museum president Julio Neves said they would
not comment on the newspaper reports.
Neves confirmed the works, which were found covered in plastic
leaning against a wall inside the house, were in perfect condition
and will be on exhibition in their old locations when the museum
reopens on Friday with improved security.
Eventually, the museum will install security and surveillance
equipment equivalent to that at Paris' Louvre museum, Neves said.
Three robbers armed only with a crowbar and a car jack seized
the paintings on Dec. 20 as unarmed museum guards were changing
shifts.
"It's obvious the two did not steal the paintings for
themselves," Freire said. "They did it for someone else. The
focus of the investigation now is to find out for whom."
Neves said the museum is upgrading its security system.
Art experts estimate the value of the Picasso at about $50
million and the Portinari at $5-6 million.
Picasso painted "Portrait of Suzanne Bloch" in 1904 during his
Blue Period. "O Lavrador de Cafe," which depicts a coffee picker,
was painted in 1939 and is one of Portinari's most renowned works.
The thieves ignored other important works in the Sao Paulo
museum, including Pierre-Auguste Renoir's "Bather with a Griffon
Dog," Vincent Van Gogh's "L'Arlesienne" and Henri Matisse's
"Plaster Torso and Bouquet of Flowers."
Last year, a gang used a carnival street parade to cover the
theft of four paintings from a Rio de Janeiro museum. Those works,
valued at around $40 million, have never been recovered.
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Associated Press Writer Tales Azzoni in Sao Paulo contributed to
this report.
