Brazilian police have recovered eight engravings by the renowned French artist Henri Matisse that were stolen from the Mário de Andrade Library in São Paulo in December 2025. The artworks were found on Thursday at a residence in São Bernardo do Campo, a municipality near São Paulo. A man found in possession of the stolen pieces was arrested, according to a statement from the police.
The recovered Matisse works are estimated to be worth approximately $200,000. Authorities stated that the man arrested was holding the artworks on behalf of the mastermind behind the heist. The mastermind, who was arrested in April, is believed to be part of a highly organized criminal group that operated both within Brazil and on the international black market for stolen art. A woman has also been arrested in connection with the case.
The original theft from the Mário de Andrade Library involved 13 artworks, including the eight Matisse engravings and five works by Brazilian modernist painter Candido Portinari. The Portinari pieces have not yet been recovered. The heist occurred during public visiting hours, when two armed thieves overpowered a security guard and an elderly couple. They then removed the engravings and other items from a glass dome where they were displayed as part of a modern art exhibition, a collaboration between the library and the Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo.
The investigation into the robbery revealed a sophisticated criminal network. Police identified Laéssio Rodrigues de Oliveira Silva as the alleged mastermind. Rodrigues de Oliveira Silva, who was already in prison since April for attempting to bribe a security guard in Rio de Janeiro, has a history of convictions related to art and rare book theft from various institutions in Brazil, including the National Library Foundation and the University of São Paulo. Police allege that while incarcerated, he made contact with an organized crime gang to facilitate further illicit activities, including art trafficking.
Two other individuals, Carlos Leandro Ferreira da Silva and a law student named Regiane Rodrigues da Silva, were arrested for allegedly acting as intermediaries between Rodrigues de Oliveira Silva and the two individuals who carried out the physical theft. The two perpetrators, identified as Felipe dos Santos Fernandes Quadra and Gabriel Pereira Rodrigues de Mello, allegedly brandished firearms during the robbery. Gabriel Pereira Rodrigues de Mello remains at large.
The stolen Matisse engravings are part of the artist’s celebrated “Jazz” series, created in 1947. The works were part of a special exhibition that explored the intersection of literature and art, showcasing rare books and the development of modernism in Brazil. The exhibition was held in partnership with the Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo and closed on the day of the theft. The value of the stolen Matisse works, while significant, is considerably less than the record prices some of his pieces have fetched at auction, with one work selling for over $80 million in 2018.
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