Portinari Recovered

A work by Candido Portinari that was stolen from the Museum of Contemporary Art in Penambuco (MAC) has been recovered by the police in Rio de Janeiro two weeks after its disappearance. It is an oil on wood painting entitled Enterro (Burial), valued at 500,000.00 Euros. Enterro belongs to Portinari's Blue Series and was part of the private collection of millionaire Assis Chateaubriand before it was donated to the estate of Pernambuco in 1986. The police found it in the hands of a person who was allegedly negotiating its sale with an art collector in Rio de Janeiro. According to the people in charge of the operation, it was decided to apprehend the suspect before the meeting with the buyer could take place in order to avoid further risks to the work. The theft of Enterro took place a year after two other works by Portinari were stolen from a mansion in São Paulo, although these were recovered by Brazilian police soon after their disappearance. These other works are Cangaceiro (Bandit, 1956) and Retrato de Maria (Portrait of Maria, 1934). They were stolen together with two paintings by Tarsila do Amaral and Orlando Teruz. In 2007, Brazilian police were also called in to recover O Lavrador de Café (The Coffee Farmer), yet another painting by Portinari stolen that very year from the Museum of Art in São Paulo (MASP).