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A suspect has been arrested after more than a dozen pieces of art, including works by French artist Henri Matisse, were stolen by armed men from a library in the Brazilian city of São Paulo, authorities said.
A pair of thieves stole eight engravings by Matisse and five pieces by Brazilian painter Cândido Portinari from the Mário de Andrade Library on Sunday morning, according to officials.
The suspects held up a security guard and an elderly couple visiting the library, broke a glass display case and put the artworks in a canvas bag before leaving through the main exit, according to police.
A video published by Brazilian news outlet G1 appeared to show one of the alleged thieves carrying several of the artworks through the streets, leaving them against a wall, then running away. The footage could not be independently verified by Euronews.
On Monday, the São Paulo government said one of the suspects had been arrested after “investigative work and analysis of security cameras that recorded the criminal act”. That came after authorities said they had found the thieves’ getaway vehicle.
The theft occurred on the last day of an exhibition titled “From the Book to the Museum”, a collaboration between the library and the Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo.
Officials have not yet released details about the stolen pieces or their value.
The Folha de São Paulo newspaper reported that a collage made by Matisse for the limited-edition art book “Jazz” was among the items stolen.
The Municipal Secretariat of Culture and Creative Economy said that the stolen pieces “have cultural, historical, and artistic value, and therefore cannot be assessed solely in economic terms”. Art critics told the BBC that the value of the works is “incalculable”.
The incident comes less than two months after thieves stole jewels worth €88 million from the Louvre Museum in Paris, in a brazen daylight heist that stunned the art world.