Police recover eight Matisse works stolen in Brazil heist

Brazil’s São Paulo state civil police recovered eight works by Henri Matisse stolen in an armed robbery at the Mário de Andrade Library on 7 December 2025, returning them to the library, though five missing works by Candido Portinari have not been found. Police located the Matisse pieces on 13 August in an apartment in São Bernardo do Campo, arresting a man suspected of storing them for the alleged mastermind and seizing a firearm; the eight works are valued at more than $190,000. The stolen items are plates from Matisse’s 1947 artist book Jazz—Le clown, Le cirque, Monsieur Loyal, Cauchemar de l’éléphant blanc, Les codomas, La nageuse dans l’aquarium, L’avaleur de sabres, and Le cowboy—taken on the final day of the exhibition Do livro ao museu: MAM São Paulo e a Biblioteca Mário de Andrade, organized with Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo and curated by Cauê Alves and Pedro Nery. Authorities said the group acted with planning and task division to place cultural property on the illicit art market, and noted earlier arrests including two key suspects detained by federal police in Rio de Janeiro in April.

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