[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Henri-Matisse-Jazz-album-publicado-por-Editions-Teriade-Paris-1947.-Colecao-Biblioteca-Mario-de-Andrade.-Foto_-Ding-Musa.jpeg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tBrazilian police say they have identified the man they believe organized last year\u2019s theft of eight Henri Matisse works from one of S\u00e3o Paulo\u2019s most important libraries,\u00a0<\/em>a case that shocked the country\u2019s cultural sector and remains unresolved.<\/p>\n \n\tAccording to\u00a0Art Review,\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0authorities have named La\u00e9ssio Rodrigues de Oliveira Silva as the alleged architect of the December 2025 theft from the Biblioteca M\u00e1rio de Andrade, Brazil\u2018s second-largest library. Investigators say Rodrigues de Oliveira Silva coordinated the operation while drawing on a long history of thefts involving rare books, manuscripts, and other cultural artifacts.<\/p>\n \n\tThe heist unfolded on the final day of an exhibition titled\u00a0\u201cFrom Book to Museum,\u201d which had been organized in partnership with the S\u00e3o Paulo Museum of Modern Art. Two armed men entered the library shortly after it opened, held a security guard and an elderly couple at gunpoint, and removed works from display cases before fleeing on foot toward a nearby metro station, according to\u00a0reports at the time.<\/p>\n \n\tAmong the stolen works were eight Matisse prints from\u00a0Jazz<\/em>\u00a0(1947), the artist\u2019s celebrated portfolio of brightly colored paper-cut compositions. The thieves also took five illustrations by Brazilian modernist C\u00e2ndido Portinari created for a special edition of Jos\u00e9 Lins do Rego\u2019s novel\u00a0Menino de Engenho<\/em>.<\/p>\n Police quickly identified two suspected gunmen, and one arrest followed shortly after the robbery. The investigation has since expanded. Authorities now allege that Rodrigues de Oliveira Silva organized the theft through a network of intermediaries. Police have also arrested Carlos Leandro Ferreira da Silva and a law student, Regiane Rodrigues da Silva, who investigators say acted as go-betweens between the alleged organizer and the men who carried out the robbery. One of the suspected gunmen remains at large, and the artworks have not been recovered.<\/p>\n \n\tRodrigues de Oliveira Silva was formally identified while already in custody. He has been in prison since April after allegedly attempting to bribe a security guard at Rio de Janeiro\u2019s Rui Barbosa Institute in connection with another planned theft.<\/p>\n \n\tThe allegations fit a pattern that investigators say stretches back decades. In 1998, Rodrigues de Oliveira Silva was convicted of stealing rare magazines from Brazil\u2019s National Library Foundation, material then valued at roughly $750,000. Authorities have also linked him to thefts from the University of S\u00e3o Paulo, the National Museum, and the Itamaraty Palace in Bras\u00edlia.<\/p>\n \n\tAccording to police, a voicemail found on the suspect\u2019s phone contained an unusual admission. Rodrigues de Oliveira Silva allegedly described himself as a specialist in rare books, \u201cvery valuable, very rare books. I distribute them all over the world.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThen he added, \u201cI\u2019m getting into the art business now.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe stolen Matisse and Portinari works remain missing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/brazil-police-identify-suspect-matisse-theft-sao-paulo-library-1234787986\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Henri-Matisse-Jazz-album-publicado-por-Editions-Teriade-Paris-1947.-Colecao-Biblioteca-Mario-de-Andrade.-Foto_-Ding-Musa.jpeg?w=1024″] Brazilian police say they have identified the man they believe organized last year\u2019s theft of eight Henri Matisse works from one of S\u00e3o Paulo\u2019s most important libraries,\u00a0a case that shocked the country\u2019s cultural sector and remains unresolved. According to\u00a0Art Review,\u00a0\u00a0authorities have named La\u00e9ssio Rodrigues de Oliveira Silva as the alleged architect of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1969363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1969363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1969363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1969363\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1969363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1969363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1969363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}