Matisse’s Odalisque in Red Pants
A Matisse painting was stolen sometime before 2000, no one knows where it went or who is responsible. Then in 2012 two arrests are made but, here’s the kicker, to this day no one has been charged with actually stealing the painting.
The Robbery
So we’re just going to get right into things today. As I said, sometime before 2000 Odalisque in Red Pants (painted by Henri Matisse in 1925) was stolen from its home in the Mueso de Art Contemporaneo in Caracas, Venezuela. You might be wondering why we don’t know the exact date of the robbery, well this is because whoever stole the painting switched it with a copy (and honestly, not even a good one) and no one noticed until 2002. The earliest evidence of the fake is a photo from September 2000 of President Hugo Chávez standing in front of it but it could have been switched out long before that.
It’s not like the Mueso de Art Contemporaneo didn’t have plenty of chances to notice the forgery in their collection. In October 2000 it was brought to the museum’s attention that someone was shopping Odalisque in Red Pants around, but no one ever followed up or checked that the original was still in their collection so the fake remained hanging on the wall. Then, in 2001 the museum conducted an inventory that identified 14 missing paintings from the collection but somehow still didn’t detect the Matisse forgery. Unfortunately, under Chávez museums had been neglected and underfunded so the museum simply may not have had the funds to follow up on this information in 2000 or properly conduct an inventory in 2001. But still, I feel like if someone tells you your painting may be a fake maybe just go confirm it isn’t.
Once the forgery was noticed and reported to the police there’s honestly not much that the Caracas police did in the aftermath of the discovery. In fairness to them they had no experience with this type of art crime but still, a few months after the investigation started the case went cold.
Some Answers…But Not A Lot
Then, seemingly out of nowhere in 2011, a Miami man named Pedro Antonio Marcuello Guzman spread the word that Odalisque in Red Pants was for sale and in December of that year he entered into negotiations with interested buyers for the painting. The buyers were anxious to get this piece from the black market because they would be getting an amazing deal. The seller told them that the painting was worth $3 million but he was willing to sell it for $740,000. As part of the deal Guzman would receive $555,000 in cash and the remainder of the money would be wired to a Mexican bank account prior to the transfer of the painting.
The buyers agreed but before they sent any money they wanted to see the painting in person to verify its authenticity. So Guzman’s partner, Maria Martha Elisa Ornelas Lazo, rolled up the painting, placed it in a tube, and carried it on a flight from Mexico City to Miami. Guzman and Lazo met the buyers in a Miami beach hotel where Lazo told them that she had researched the history of the stolen painting online after it arrived at her home in Mexico several years before. She also told the buyers that some employees at the Mueso de Art Contemporaneo in Caracas were the ones who had switched out the real canvas for a forgery (who knows if that’s true). She also said that their efforts to sell the painting, up until now, had been unsuccessful.
What Guzman and Lazo didn’t know (which you may have guessed by now) is that the buyers were undercover FBI agents who has captured this entire interaction on video and audio recordings. After verifying the authenticity of the painting the pair were placed under arrest. They were charged with, and ended up pleading guilty to, conspiring to transport stolen property.
Guzman was sentenced to 2 years and 9 months and Lazo was sentenced to 1 year and 9 months in federal custody.
Up to now these are the only two arrests ever made in this case, and we still have no idea who stole the painting and when and whether or not museum employees were in on it. The painting is back home but there are still a lot of unanswered questions surrounding her.
Works Cited
“Matisse’s Odalisque in Red Pants Recovered by FBI and Returning Home to Venezuela”. Center for Art Law. 2013. https://itsartlaw.org/2013/02/16/matisses-odalisque-in-red-pants-recovered-by-fbi-and-returning-home-to-venezuela/
Neuman, William. “Topless Woman Found. Details Sketchy”. The New York Times. 2012. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/20/world/americas/stolen-matisse-odalisque-in-red-pants-surfaces.html
Richey, Warren. “Mystery of the Fake Matisse Masterpiece Leads to Jail Time”. The Christian Science Monitor. 2013. https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2013/0123/Mystery-of-the-fake-Matisse-masterpiece-leads-to-jail-time