"One month after the theft of 13 works by Henri Matisse and Cândido Portinari from the Biblioteca Mário de Andrade in downtown São Paulo, Brazilian authorities have made progress in the criminal investigation, even as the stolen works remain missing. The first arrest came one day after the 7 December robbery, when the police in São Paulo apprehended a suspect after tracking his movements; he remains in custody as the investigation continues."
"A third arrest came on 19 December, when police detained a woman believed to have helped the heist by hiding the works immediately after the robbery. Police confirm she is married to the one suspect who remains at large, a man named Gabriel Pereira Rodrigues de Mello, who is known by the nicknames "Gargamel" and "Capybara". Mello had previous convictions for robbery and aggravated theft dismissed by the São Paulo courts early last year."
"One of the convictions that was overturned happened a decade ago in São Paulo, when Mello and another man pretended to carry firearms and carjacked a luxury vehicle. Another incident happened in 2022, when Mello impersonated a bank employee and took an envelope containing 300 reais ($55) from an elderly customer. Mello previously had an extensive criminal history mostly related to robberies."
Thirteen works—eight engravings by Henri Matisse and five prints by Cândido Portinari—were stolen from the Biblioteca Mário de Andrade gallery during a Sunday morning robbery while the library was open. Two armed men subdued a security guard and an elderly couple and left with the artworks. Authorities arrested one suspect the day after the theft, temporarily detained a second, and later arrested a woman who allegedly hid the works. Police identify an at-large suspect, Gabriel Pereira Rodrigues de Mello, whose prior robbery-related convictions were dismissed under an automatic-pardon law.
Read at The Art Newspaper - International art news and events
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