This handout picture released on August 13, 2026, by the Sao Paulo police press office shows eight recovered works by French artist Henri Matisse that had been stolen in December 2025 in Sao Paulo. Photo by Handout / SAO PAULO'S POLICE PRESS OFFICE / AFP
Sao Paulo: Police in Brazil recovered on Thursday eight Matisse engravings stolen from a Sao Paulo library last year, officials said.
The works were found at a home in the town of Sao Bernardo do Campo, near Sao Paulo, and the man who had them was arrested, police said in a statement.
The works, estimated to be worth $200,000, were being held by this man for the mastermind of the heist, police said.
That mastermind was already arrested in April and a woman has also been arrested in the case.
Police said the gang behind the robbery was highly organized and structured, with specific tasks assigned to members as it stole artworks in Brazil and sold them on the black market.
In the Matisse robbery last year, police say thieves overpowered a security guard and an elderly couple visiting the Mario de Andrade Library, grabbed the engravings and other items from a glass dome where they were kept, and fled.
They also stole five works by the Brazilian artist Candido Portinari, but these have not been recovered.
The Matisse engravings were part of a modern art exhibition highlighting a collaboration between the library and the Museum of Modern Art of Sao Paulo.
