Brazilian police have named a man they believe to be the mastermind behind the theft of several works by Matisse from Biblioteca Mario de Andrade in São Paulo.
In December last year, armed thieves burst into the downtown library and ripped thirteen works of art from cabinets and walls of a temporary exhibition, disabling steel cables used to secure them. Among the prints stolen were eight works by Matisse, which are part of the book Jazz (1947), and five illustrations by Candido Portinari made for the 1959 book Menino de Engenho by José Lins do Rego.
The two suspects were identified soon after, with one arrest made, but São Paulo police have now named Laéssio Rodrigues de Oliveira Silva as the man behind the alleged plot.
Rodrigues de Oliveira Silva was arrested in prison, where he has been held since 20 April after being caught allegedly trying to bribe a security guard at the Rui Barbosa Institute in Rio de Janeiro to commit another theft.
In 1998, he was convicted of stealing rare magazines from the National Library Foundation – material valued at US$750,000 at the time. In the following years, Laéssio was found responsible for thefts from libraries at the University of São Paulo (USP), the National Museum and the Itamaraty Palace, part of Brazil’s seat of government complex in Brasília.
Police allege that while in prison for these crimes, Rodrigues de Oliveira Silva made contact with the PCC, the organised crime gang with international links.
In one voicemail message found on Rodrigues de Oliveira Silva’s phone he tells a contact, ‘My real specialty is books. My business is books. Very valuable, very rare books. I distribute them all over the world. I’m getting into the art business now.’
Police have also arrested Carlos Leandro Ferreira da Silva, and a law student identified as Regiane Rodrigues da Silva, who both allegedly acted as intermediaries between Rodrigues de Oliveira Silva and the two men who carried out the theft.
Felipe dos Santos Fernandes Quadra and Gabriel Pereira Rodrigues de Mello are said to have brandished guns at a guard and an older couple just hours after the library opeed on a Sunday morning. Pereira Rodrigues de Mello remains at large and the artworks have not been recovered.
