Woman Convinces Mother Her Art Collection Is Cursed, Then Steals $140M Worth

High-value art scams have been in the news recently, from Anna Delvey’s fraudster identity to when an unsuccessful scalper tried to sell off a stolen Banksy. 

However, none of those stories are quite as bizarre as one that’s recently emerged from Brazil, with police in Rio de Janeiro reporting they were looking to arrest a group of six individuals believed to have stolen US$140 million worth of artworks. 

The 16 pieces, some of which have since been found, belonged to an 82-year-old widow whose late husband was an art dealer, and include “museum-quality pieces” from Brazilian masters Tarsal do Amaral, Emiliano Di Cavalcanti, Cicero Dias, Rubens Gerchman, and Alberto Guignard. 

But it gets even more baffling! It appears the entire scam was concocted not by an expert group of thieves à la Money Heist, but the widow’s own daughter, who has been taken into police custody. 

According to a police statement, seen by CBS News, back in January 2020, the widow was approached by a “psychic” who claimed her daughter was very ill and would soon pass away. This so-called soothsayer also told the elder to “pay exorbitant amounts for the spiritual treatment of her daughter.” 

Her daughter egged on the con, encouraging her mother to fork out hefty sums for “treatments,” while firing domestic employees so her accomplices could sneak into the house to remove the artworks.

Fortunately, the police managed to recover most of the works from the collection at an art gallery in Sao Paulo. The gallery’s owner had purchased the pieces directly from the widow’s daughter, with two of the set then sold on to the Museum of Latin American Art in Buenos Aires, Argentina. 

In addition, investigators found Sol Ponete by Brazilian modernist artist Tarsila do Amaral, valued at US$59 million, hidden under the bed of one of the accomplice’s homes.

Artnet News notes that the police are still on the lookout for two of the suspects. The group could also face charges for embezzlement, robbery, extortion, and false imprisonment.

[via Artnet News and CBS News, cover image via Polícia Civil do Estado do Rio de Janeiro]