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A suspect has been arrested after armed men stole more than a dozen artworks, including works by French artist Henri Matisse, from a library in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo, authorities said.
A pair of thieves stole eight Matisse prints and five works by Brazilian artist Candido Portinari from the Mario de Andrade Library on Sunday morning, officials said.
Police said the suspects detained a security guard and an elderly couple visiting the library, broke a glass display case, placed the artwork in canvas bags and left through the front exit.
A video released by Brazilian news agency G1 showed one of the suspected thieves carrying several pieces of art through the city, pushing them against a wall and fleeing. Euronews was unable to independently verify the footage.
On Monday, the São Paulo government announced that one of the suspects had been arrested after “investigative work and analysis of surveillance cameras that recorded the criminal activity.” This comes after authorities announced they had found the thieves’ getaway vehicle.
The theft occurred on the last day of the exhibition “From Books to Museums,” a joint project between the library and the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art.
Authorities have not yet released details about the stolen parts or their value.
The Folha de São Paulo newspaper reported that a collage created by Matisse for a limited edition art book called “Jazz” was among the items stolen.
The city’s Culture, Creative Economy Secretariat said that the stolen works “have cultural, historical, and artistic value, so they cannot be evaluated solely from an economic perspective.” Art critics told the BBC that the work’s value was “immeasurable”.
The incident comes less than two months after thieves stole €88 million worth of jewels from the Louvre in Paris in a brazen daylight heist that stunned the art world.