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Brazilian Cops Recover Stolen Picasso

Blue Period painting taken from Sao Paulo museum last month

By Peter Fearon,  Newser Staff

Posted Jan 9, 2008 2:20 PM CST
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(Newser) – Police in Brazil have recovered a Picasso painting stolen from a Sao Paulo museum last month and arrested two suspects yesterday. The Picasso, Portrait of Suzanne Bloch, and a painting by Brazilian Candido Portinari are valued at a combined $55 million. The thieves broke into the museum using a hydraulic jack and snatched both paintings in 3 minutes.

The nabbed suspects were part of a larger gang, cops tell Reuters. "The focus of the investigation from now on will be to find out who ordered the robbery and where they were taking the pictures," said the local police chief. The Picasso was painted in 1904 and is the last major work of the artist's Blue Period.

A member of the scientific police carries the hydraulic jack used by thieves to break through the door at the Sao Paulo Museum of Art in Sao Paulo, Thursday, Dec. 20, 2007. Thieves broke into the Sao Paulo Museum of Art on Dec. 20, 2007 and made off with Pablo...
A member of the scientific police carries the hydraulic jack used by thieves to break through the door at the Sao Paulo Museum of Art in Sao Paulo, Thursday, Dec. 20, 2007. Thieves broke into the Sao...   (Associated Press)
A hydraulic jack used by thieves to enter the Sao Paulo Museum of Art remains in the museum's door in Sao Paulo, Thursday, Dec. 20, 2007. Thieves broke into the Sao Paulo Museum of Art on Dec. 20, 2007 and made off with Pablo Picasso's Portrait of Suzanne Bloch and...
A hydraulic jack used by thieves to enter the Sao Paulo Museum of Art remains in the museum's door in Sao Paulo, Thursday, Dec. 20, 2007. Thieves broke into the Sao Paulo Museum of Art on Dec. 20, 2007...   (Associated Press)
Pablo Picasso's painting Portrait of Suzanne Bloch. Brazilian police recovered paintings by Pablo Picasso and Candido Portinari that were stolen in Dec. 2007 from the country's premier modern art museum, officials said Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2008. (AP Photo/Sao Paulo Museum of Art)
Pablo Picasso's painting "Portrait of Suzanne Bloch." Brazilian police recovered paintings by Pablo Picasso and Candido Portinari that were stolen in Dec. 2007 from the country's premier modern art museum,...   (Associated Press)
President of Sao Paulo's Museum of Art, Julio Neves, left, speaks to an art expert, center, as a police officer stands guard next to the recovered paintings Portrait of Suzanne Bloch, by Pablo Picasso, left, and O Lavrador de Cafe, by Candido Portinari, in Sao Paulo, Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2008....
President of Sao Paulo's Museum of Art, Julio Neves, left, speaks to an art expert, center, as a police officer stands guard next to the recovered paintings "Portrait of Suzanne Bloch", by Pablo Picasso,...   (Associated Press)
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Master Thieves

Picasso portrait recovered
Bloomberg

 
Brazil • painting • Candido Portinari • Pablo Picasso • Portrait of Suzanne Bloch • Sao Paulo Museum of Art • Mauricio Freire • Julio Neves • art heist

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