Brazil's premiere modern art museum has revealed that it had no insurance on paintings by Pablo Picasso and one of Brazil's best known artists, Candido Portinari, that were stolen Thursday.
Eduardo Cosomano of Sao Paulo's Museum of Art said none of the museum's 8,000 works are insured: "Insuring them would be financially unviable."
The Sao Paulo Museum of Art in Brazil has unarmed guards and no alarm system to protect its collection of 8,000 works of art.
(Andre Penner/Associated Press)
Thieves broke into the museum, using only a crowbar and a car jack, making off with Picasso's Portrait of Suzanne Bloch (1904), done during his Blue Period, as well as Portinari's work depicting a coffee picker. Portinari's 1939 painting, O Lavrador de Cafe, is considered one of Brazil's most iconic and valuable works of art.
Experts have pegged the Picasso's value at about $50 million US while the Portinari is worth about $5 million US.
"The value of the two paintings, like all the others in our collection, is incalculable and as such impossible to insure," said Cosomano.
Cosomano said the museum relied on unarmed guards patrolling the inside of the museum 24 hours a day. There are no alarms or motion sensors.
"Obviously we will now have to rethink our entire security system."
Pablo Picasso's Portrait of Suzanne Bloch, estimated to be worth $50 millon US, was one of two paintings stolen from the museum on Thursday.
(Sao Paulo Museum of Art/Associated Press)
Police say they believe the thieves were paid by a wealthy art afficianado who was adding to a private collection.
Jorge Yunes, a Sao Paulo businessman and art lover, has offered more than $55,000 US for anyone who finds and returns the paintings.
Cosomano says the museum will reopen to the public on Wednesday and confirms that two international art exhibitions will open as scheduled on Jan. 11.
The heist is similar to a bold robbery made last year in Rio de Janeiro.
A gang of five men, using a carnival street parade as cover, took four paintings by Dali, Picasso, Monet and Cezanne from the city's art museum.
The paintings, with an estimated collective value of $40 million US, have never been recovered.
Related
Internal Links
More Art & Design Headlines »
- Artist would put ordinary souls on pedestal in Trafalgar Square
- A proposal to have ordinary Britons stand atop a plinth in Trafalgar Square, alongside the famous statue of Admiral Horatio Nelson on his column, is among six works of art being considered for one of London's most prominent public sites.
- France signs deal to create 'desert Louvre'
- France and the United Arab Emirates have signed a $588-million Cdn deal to lend the Louvre brand name to a museum in the new cultural district being built in Abu Dhabi.
- National Gallery to keep director for another year
- After completing two terms at the helm of the National Gallery of Canada, Pierre Théberge has been reappointed to the post for an extra year.
- National Portrait Gallery would be $2.5M cheaper in Ottawa: report
- Locating the National Portrait Gallery in Ottawa would cost $2.5 million less per year than putting it in one of eight other cities qualified to bid for the museum, says a leaked report from the City of Ottawa.
- Free days offered at French national museums
- Many national museums in France, including the venerable Louvre in Paris, will be offering free admission in the coming months.
More Arts Headlines »
- People's Choice award winners honoured on location
- The stars of Grey's Anatomy and Pirates of the Caribbean were among the fan favourites at the 34th annual People's Choice Awards on Tuesday, as CBS scrapped its usual live broadcast of the show for a strike-friendly, pre-taped program.
- Nancy Wilson, Quincy Jones join Peterson tribute
- American jazz singer Nancy Wilson and Quebec singer Gregory Charles will perform at the free tribute concert for the late Canadian pianist Oscar Peterson on Saturday in Toronto.
- Raincoast Books to ditch publishing arm
- Raincoast Books, the West Coast company that brought the blockbuster Harry Potter series to Canadian readers, announced Monday its imminent departure from the publishing business. There will be job cuts in Vancouver and Toronto.
- Madeleine's parents in talks about making a movie
- The parents of Madeleine McCann, the young British girl who went missing while on a family vacation in Portugal, are mulling over whether to take their ongoing search for the girl to the big screen.
- Coen brothers, Penn nominated for directors' guild honours
- Joel and Ethan Cohen, already winners of the Critics Choice and Satellite awards for best director, have been nominated by their Directors Guild of America peers.
Arts Features
Blog Watch
Most Blogged about CBC.ca Articles
Note: CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external sites - link will open in new window
