Thieves snatch more than a dozen artworks from Brazil library in daytime heist

By Rhea Mogul, CNN

(CNN) — Thieves made off with more than a dozen pieces of art, including works by Henri Matisse, from a library in São Paulo on Sunday.

Two men entered the Mário de Andrade Library during visiting hours and overpowered a security guard and an elderly couple before fleeing toward the nearby Anhangabaú metro station, according to CNN affiliate CNN Brasil, citing information from the country’s military police.

One of the suspects was arrested Monday, CNN Brasil reported, citing the man’s attorney, and police are on the hunt for the second suspect.

Since October, the library and the Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo have collaborated on an exhibition called “From book to museum,” featuring works by artists, including Matisse, Brazilian painter Candido Portinari and French artist Fernand Léger.

The thieves stole eight prints by Matisse and five prints by Portinari on display, according to a statement from the Municipal Secretariat of Culture and Creative Economy, a local government department focused on fostering arts and culture.

While it’s not immediately clear how much the pieces are worth, the secretariat stated that the pieces “have cultural, historical, and artistic value, and therefore cannot be assessed solely in economic terms.”

Matisse, who died in 1954, was one of the most influential artists of the 20th-century known for his use of bold, expressive colors. Besides painting, he was well-practiced in printmaking, producing more than 800 prints using a range of techniques from linocut to lithography.

Among the stolen works were pages from Matisse’s “Jazz,” a limited-edition book containing vibrant images derived from his famous paper cut-outs, and featuring the French artist’s written reflections on art and life.

Sunday’s heist follows a brazen burglary in October, when thieves dressed in yellow vests used a truck-mounted ladder to scale Paris’s Louvre Museum. They took nine pieces of jewelry valued at more than $100 million in what was considered the most audacious art theft at the museum since the Mona Lisa was stolen in 1911.

The October heist was also seen as an example of how thieves are increasingly targeting cultural institutions — not for prized paintings, but for artifacts that can be dismantled and melted down for the value of their raw materials.

Museums are a “relatively soft target” compared to highly secured buildings like banks, according to Remigiusz Plath, secretary of the International Committee for Museum Security.

Speaking previously to CNN, Plath said that museums face the unique challenge of balancing robust security with the public’s freedom to see and engage with their collections.

“You can actually go in there, when the museum is open, and see it right in front of you,” he said. “And if you apply blunt force, just like a roof, you’re right there — there are not many thresholds to go through to have access to these raw materials.”

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