Sao Paulo Museum of Art Robbery
You’d think that the museum housing one of the most important art collections in South America would want to have a top-of-the-line security system but it seems like the Sao Paulo Museum of Art (MASP) made it pretty easy to run off with some treasures.
The Theft
The MASP is located in Sao Paulo, the most populous city in Brazil. It was built in 1947 by business mogul and patron of the arts Assis Chateaubriand and became the first modern museum in the country. The museum houses the most important collection of European art in the southern hemisphere, consisting of more than 11 thousand artworks including paintings, sculptures, objects, photographs, videos, and pieces of clothing from Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas.
So it is no real surprise that there are some beautiful and valuable pieces in this collection that would catch the eye of art thieves.
On December 20, 2007 two masked men approached the front doors of MASP before dawn (but still not in the dead of night or anything). They used a hydraulic jack to pry open the main door and a crowbar to smash the glass of another door to gain entry to the museum. Since there was no alarm system (!!!), no sensors (!!!!), and the guards were unarmed (!!!!!) it was easy for the intruders to enter, take the pieces they were after, and leave the museum with no resistance.
The pieces that were stolen were Portrait of Suzanne Bloch by Pablo Picasso and Brazilian painter Candido Portinari’s The Coffee Worker. Neither of these paintings were insured and they were valued at around $33.8 million USD.
I need a moment.
Ok, I’m back. Once the police arrived on the scene they found the jack and the crowbar that the thieves had left and they also found an earpiece that the thieves likely used to communicate between them before and during the robbery. But other than that there was no compelling evidence or real leads.
“It is absurd that the most important museum in Latin America was broken into with a crowbar and a jack” (MacSwan, 2007) said art expert Jones Bergamin to O Estado de S.Paulo newspaper after the robbery. Honestly, I agree.
MASP president Julio Neves told reporters that the museum lacked the funds for a proper security system, “we don’t have the resources for it. Now, we are going to update. We can improve some equipment” (MacSwan, 2007). Until this point the museum thought that they had an adequate security system, “MASP opted for security by patrolling, with people and cameras. There is no alarm system and this has worked successfully for the museum’s 60-year history” (MacSwan, 2007). Despite having such an impressive collection the museum had been struggling financially and in 2005 it closed temporarily when the power was shut off to the building because the bills hadn’t been paid.
It's also worth mentioning that in October, 2007 (so 2 months before the robbery) two thieves attempted to break into the museum but were spotted and chased away before they could do anything. Maybe that should have been the catalyst for heightened security.
Sao Paulo state culture secretary said that security should have been the museum’s #1 priority, “we are annoyed and concerned, this complicates the administration of the museum which is already suffering a financial crisis” (MacSwan, 2007). I completely agree with this and while I understand that it would be difficult to shell out for an expensive security system at a time when they can’t even keep the lights on, I’d argue it’s job #1 of a museum to keep the works safe.
Back to the police investigation, not a lot was publicly shared but we do know that the police, taking into account the attempted break-in in October, were developing theories that these two instances were related and that it was most likely that someone who ordered the paintings to be stolen for them. They said it was unlikely that they would be contacted for a ransom.
The Recovery
Fast forward about a month to January 8, 2007 when the police revealed that they had found the paintings and two arrests had been made. As I said, they were pretty tight lipped about the investigation as a whole but it’s believed that they had an informant lead them to a safe house where they found the two paintings wrapped in plastic in a bedroom.
Museum directors confirmed that there was no damage to either of the paintings.
At a press conference the following day police told reporters that the suspects are not believed to have carried out this robbery for themselves and that the next step would be to find whoever ordered these paintings. The thieves reported that they would have been paid $1.8 million USD for the delivery of the paintings.
It was also revealed at the press conference that there actually had been several extortion attempts following the robbery and before the discovery of the paintings. MASP president Julio Neves received a letter on January 3, 2008, demanding $6 million USD for the paintings. Three more phone calls were received by the museum demanding smaller sums but those are all considered to be hoaxes.
Luckily these attempts were not entertained and the paintings made it back safe and sound to Sao Paulo Museum of Art. As for the security system, I couldn’t find anything up to date but at the time of the robbery the museum said it would be installing a system similar to what the Louvre uses, hopefully they actually did that.
Works Cited
MacSwan, Angus. “Picasso Stolen from Museum with No Alarm”. Reuters. 2007. https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-brazil-picasso/picasso-stolen-from-museum-with-no-alarm-idUKN2017768520071221
Phillips, Tom. “Stolen Picasso Recovered Undamaged in Brazil”. The Guardian. 2008. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jan/10/artsfunding.artnews