Stolen Brazilian paintings found
Stolen paintings by Pablo Picasso and Candido Portinari were returned to the Sao Paulo Museum of Art in Brazil on Wednesday while police tried to find out who masterminded the Dec. 20 robbery.
The paintings, worth millions of dollars, were recovered Tuesday when a suspect led police to a house on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, said chief police inspector Mauricio Lemos Freire.
A helicopter and more than a dozen police vehicles escorted the small truck carrying “Portrait of Suzanne Bloch” by Picasso and “O Lavrador de Cafe” by Portinari, an influential Brazilian artist, back to the museum.
Two suspects were in custody and the O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper reported they had been promised $2.8 million for the heist.
The works were found covered in plastic and “in absolutely perfect condition,” according to the museum president, Julio Neves, who said they would be on exhibition in their old locations when the museum reopened Friday.
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