Two armed men invaded the Mário de Andrade municipal library, in Consolação, central region of the capital of São Paulo, on Sunday morning (7). They took works of art by Frenchman Henri Matisse and Brazilian Candido Portinari and fled.
According to the direction of Mayor Ricardo Nunes (MDB), responsible for the library, eight engravings by Matisse and five by Portinari, from the work “Menino de Engenho”, belonging to the exhibition “From the book to the museum: MAM São Paulo and the Mário de Andrade library”, were stolen.
Matisse was one of the greats of Fauvism, an artistic movement that used bright colors, applied with loose brushstrokes, to record everyday themes. Among the engravings taken away by the thieves are “Le Clown”, “Le Cirque” (The Circus), “Monsieur Loyal” (Monsieur Loyal), “Le Cauchemar de l’Éléphant Blanc” (Nightmare of the White Elephant), “Les Codomas” (Le Codomas), “Le Nageur dans l’Aquarium” (La Swimmer Dans l’Aquarium), “L’Avaleur de Mots” (The Sword Swallower). and “The Cowboy” (The Cowboy). The engravings are part of the book “Jazz”. The exhibition featured 20 images by Matisse.
The list of stolen works by Portinari, belonging to the “Menino de Engenho” series, has not yet been published. The engravings are part of the illustrations in the book of the same name by José Lins do Rego, published in 1959 by the Sociedade dos Cem Bibliófilos do Brasil. The information was confirmed by Cauê Alvez, chief curator of MAM, in an interview with Fantástico.
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