The security guard who was at the Mário de Andrade library during the art theft on Sunday morning (7) made a statement to civil police officers this Tuesday.
She was accompanied by a lawyer and representatives of the company she serves.
The employee quickly left the police station and said she had been captured by an armed man. The other thief was allegedly responsible for stealing the items, which are still missing.
A man is arrested. Felipe dos Santos Fernandes Quadra, 31, was subject to a 30-day court-ordered pre-trial detention, according to a memo from his defense.
The police are trying to locate the second suspect involved in the theft and are thus trying to find the organizer of the theft.
According to security consultant Alan Fernandes, advisor to the Brazilian Public Security Forum, the ease with which criminals entered and left with the works shows that the city of São Paulo underestimated the risks associated with the exhibition organized there with works by Frenchman Henri Matisse and Brazilian Candido Portinari.
He believes that the management of Ricardo Nunes (MDB) did not consider the real value of the productions.
“The dynamics of flight show a very great fragility in the security of space,” explains Fernandes.
After handing over the security guard who was on the scene, the two men took her to a room and forced her to hand over her radio and cell phone. Meanwhile, the second suspect removed the photos from the wall. There were no reported casualties or gunshots.
In a press release, the Secretariat for Culture and the Creative Economy indicated that “the library has a surveillance team and a security camera system whose images have been transmitted to the authorities”. According to the ministry, 24 people were monitoring the scene at the time of the theft.
Auctioneers estimate that the total value of the productions reaches 4.5 million reais, but this does not mean that the perpetrators of the crime will be able to resell them at that price.
The Ministry of Culture and Creative Economy said that all works benefit from an insurance policy, but that “works in public collections have cultural, historical and artistic value and are not subject to exclusively economic measurement.”
“For administrative and risk management purposes, the work is subject to a technical assessment and coverage by an insurance policy, in accordance with market and heritage preservation criteria.”
The set was part of the municipal collection and was part of the exhibition “From the book to the museum: MAM São Paulo and the Mário de Andrade library”, which closed on Sunday. The case is being investigated by the 1st Cerco (Specialized Center for the Repression of Crimes and Miscellaneous Facts).
The speed of the action suggests that the crime was committed on demand, says researcher Tadeu Chiarelli, professor at the USP School of Communication and Arts (ECA-USP).
“We have a very big problem when it comes to selling these works, especially those by Matisse. It’s a rare set, that everyone will be watching,” says Chiarelli.
This is why, according to him, “it is difficult for people to even put it in their living room.”
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