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Matisse up for sale

Rio de Janeiro: Agents from Interpol have launched an international investigation after one of four works of art stolen during an audacious, multimillion pound raid on a museum in Rio was put up for sale on a Russian Web site. Federal police said Henri Matisse's Luxembourg Gardens had been placed on the auction site Mastak for around four hours and that they suspected collaboration between foreign buyers and drug traffickers. Reports in the Brazilian press suggested that a French man, who used to live in a beachside apartment in upmarket Ipanema, may have been the brains behind the robbery. The paintings, valued at around $50 million, were snatched on the first day of carnival from the Chacara do Ceu museum in the Santa Teresa district. Armed thieves stormed the museum during a samba procession before supposedly making their escape through the crowds. Also among the stolen paintings were Claude Monet's Marine; Picasso's The Dance and Salvador Dali's Two Balconies. Police said burnt fragments of three of the frames had been found in a favela [shanty town] close to the museum. —

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

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