A suspect has been arrested by the Brazilian police in connection with the theft of several works by Henri Matisse and Candido Portinari from the Mario de Andrade Library in downtown São Paulo.
The works were stolen on Sunday just after the library opened by two armed men who brandished firearms at a security guard and a visiting older couple. No shots were fired.
The São Paulo government said that one of the suspects was arrested on Monday after being identified through CCTV footage. The artworks were not recovered following the arrest and have been added to the Interpol watchlist.
The thieves entered the library from the entrance on Rua da Consolação which is approximately 50 metres from the room in which the exhibition Do livro ao museu (From the Book to the Museum) was being staged.
The suspects are alleged to have then ripped thirteen works of art from cabinets and walls, disabling steel cables used to secure them, including eight works by Matisse, which are part of the book Jazz (1947) and five of Portinari’s illustrations for Menino de Engenho by José Lins do Rego, published in 1959.
Do livro ao museu, dedicated to modernist artists using books as a medium, was a collaboration between the library and the Museum of Modern Art São Paulo.
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