Picasso prints stolen from Brazilian museum

June 13, 2008

Four paintings were stolen in broad daylight from a branch of the Pinacoteca Museum located in São Paulo, Brazil. In this, the second high-scale art robbery in São Paulo in less then a year, the three armed robbers overpowered three unarmed museum guards before walking out with the paintings, frames and all, in two large bags.

The combined value of the four paintings has been put between US$568,400 and $612,000. The paintings were Pablo Picasso's "The Painter and the Model" and "Minotaur, Drinker and Women", both insured at $4,200, and two paintings by Emiliano Di Cavalcanti, "Women at the Window" insured at $500,000 and "Couple" insured at $60,000. All works stolen were owned by the Jose and Paulina Nemirovsky Foundation.

This comes just several months after a December 20 robbery in São Paulo in which another Picasso painting, as well as a painting by Candido Portinari, were stolen after-hours. The paintings were recovered January 8.