An armed theft on Sunday (7 December) at a library in São Paulo has raised questions in regards to 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 Ebook 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 Nineteen Forties and 50s that aimed to spotlight how every has knowledgeable the opposite in Brazil. The theft occurred on the exhibition’s last day.
The thieves entered via the principle 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 coming into a van.
The São Paulo police claims one of many suspects has been recognized up to now. It’s speculated that the theft was commissioned by an artwork trafficking community, with authorities releasing the titles of the artworks to forestall them from being offered. The robbers’ getaway car has additionally been seized and is present process forensic examination.
The secretariat of tradition issued a press release that reads partly: “The division studies that the exhibited works have a sound insurance coverage coverage and that the placement has a safety staff and a safety digicam system. All materials that could be helpful for the investigation is being supplied to the police authorities. The navy police responded to the incident and the municipal civil guard strengthened policing.”
The outside of the Biblioteca Mário de Andrade, which was robbed of 13 works on 7 December Picture by Wilfredor, by way of Wikimedia Commons
Efforts to get well the works are ongoing. The works are unlikely to enter the business market on account of their rarity and the worldwide consideration to the theft. Interpol and different companies have been alerted of the works to forestall them from being moved.
The robbers focused a few of the most precious works on show, together with 5 prints from Portinari’s sequence for Menino de Engenho (Sugarcane Boy), which references the 1932 guide by José Lins do Rego, a traditional of Brazilian literature coping with racial inequality and the realities of the sugar financial system. The works have been included in a particular version of the guide revealed in 1943.
The Matisse works are collages from his limited-edition 1947 guide 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 approach.
The theft comes lower than two months after the theft on the Musée du Louvre in Paris, the place robbers stole greater than $102m value 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.
