An armed theft on Sunday (7 December) at a library in São Paulo has raised questions concerning the safety of public artwork collections in Brazil. Throughout public visiting hours, two gunmen entered the Biblioteca Mário de Andrade (BMA) in downtown São Paulo and stole 13 works: eight engravings by Henri Matisse and 5 works by Candido Portinari.
The BMA was internet hosting the exhibition Do livro ao museu (From the Guide to the Museum) in collaboration with the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo (MAM-SP). The present explored the intersection between literature and artwork, and museums and libraries, that includes Modernist prints and editions from the Forties and 50s that aimed to focus on how every has knowledgeable the opposite in Brazil. The theft occurred on the exhibition’s closing day.
The thieves entered by the primary entrance shortly after the library opened and subdued a safety guard and an aged couple earlier than breaking a glass show case and exiting with the works in a canvas bag. Safety personnel shortly alerted police, who couldn’t instantly find the suspects. The BMA has handed over surveillance footage in hopes of discovering the suspects, who have been seen getting into a van.
The São Paulo police claims one of many suspects has been recognized thus far. It’s speculated that the theft was commissioned by an artwork trafficking community, with authorities releasing the titles of the artworks to stop them from being bought. The robbers’ getaway car has additionally been seized and is present process forensic examination.
The secretariat of tradition issued a press release that reads partially: “The division reviews that the exhibited works have a legitimate insurance coverage coverage and that the placement has a safety workforce and a safety digital camera system. All materials which may be helpful for the investigation is being supplied to the police authorities. The navy police responded to the incident and the municipal civil guard bolstered policing.”
The outside of the Biblioteca Mário de Andrade, which was robbed of 13 works on 7 December Photograph by Wilfredor, by way of Wikimedia Commons
Efforts to get well the works are ongoing. The works are unlikely to enter the industrial market as a result of their rarity and the worldwide consideration to the theft. Interpol and different companies have been alerted of the works to stop them from being moved.
The robbers focused among the most respected works on show, together with 5 prints from Portinari’s sequence for Menino de Engenho (Sugarcane Boy), which references the 1932 e book by José Lins do Rego, a traditional of Brazilian literature coping with racial inequality and the realities of the sugar economic system. The works have been included in a particular version of the e book printed in 1943.
The Matisse works are collages from his limited-edition 1947 e book Jazz, together with: Le clown, Le cirque, Monsieur loyal, Cauchemar de l’Eléphant Blanc, Le Codomas, La nageuse dans l’aquarium, L’avaleur de sabres and Le Cowboy. Solely 300 editions have been printed, and the works are extensively recognised as textbook examples of Matisse’s cut-paper collage method.
The theft comes lower than two months after the theft on the Musée du Louvre in Paris, the place robbers stole greater than $102m price of Napoleonic-era crown jewels, underscoring the dangers public establishments face in safeguarding artwork and heritage objects. The BMA and the MAM-SP haven’t launched statements on the theft.
