The cameras of Smart Sampa, the camera program of the São Paulo City Hall, filmed part of the escape of two men suspected of having participated in the theft of works of art from the Mário de Andrade municipal library, in Consolação, central region of the capital of São Paulo. The engravings produced are signed by the Frenchman Henri Matisse and the Brazilian Candido Portinari.
Images obtained by TV Globo show the moment the men walk along Rua João Adolfo, near the library.
In the video, one of them, dressed in a light t-shirt, can be seen taking photos from a parked van and walking down the street. The other, dressed in a dark blouse, comes out of the van with some sort of paper in his hand.
The man in the light t-shirt wears the greatest works. The footage shows him placing them on the ground, leaning against a wall and next to a pile of trash. Then he leaves in a hurry. Meanwhile, the other suspect, wearing a dark blouse, passes by and continues to advance.
Once part of the works is left on the ground, the images are interrupted and it is not possible to know whether they were rescued by someone or whether the suspect himself returned to look for them.
The robbery took place around 10 a.m. this Sunday (7). Two armed men took eight engravings by Matisse, which are part of the book “Jazz”, and five by Portinari, taken from the work “Menino de Engenho”, by José Lins do Rego, published in 1959 by the Sociedade dos Cem Bibliófilos do Brasil.
The stolen works were part of the exhibition “From Book to Museum: MAM São Paulo and the Mário de Andrade Library”, which addresses the formation of modern art in Brazil, with free entry and scheduled to close this Sunday.
The thieves captured a security guard, apparently unarmed, as well as a couple who were visiting the exhibition. They used a canvas bag to carry the artwork and fled through the main gate, heading towards the Anhangabaú metro.
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