Phony Psychic Allegedly Helped Steal One of Brazil’s Most Famous Paintings

Brazilian police couldn’t believe what they found.

Under a bed in Rio de Janeiro, the officers pulled out a string of stolen paintings until finally discovering one of the country’s most famous pieces of art, worth nearly $50 million—Sol Poente, or Setting Sun in English, by legendary Brazilian artist Tarsila do Amaral.

“Look, what we have here. Oh, little beauty,” one officer says excitedly in a video released by authorities. “Fucking hell,” exclaims another in Portuguese.

The painting, which depicts a sunset over a surrealist desert, was taken as part of a larger scheme where an elderly woman was conned out of roughly $137 million worth of art, jewelry, and cash by her own daughter with the help of a phony psychic, according to a statement released by Rio authorities.

While authorities did not name the elderly woman and her daughter, they identified the 82-year-old victim as the widow of a famed art collector and dealer.

The plot allegedly began in January 2020 when the widow was approached in the beachside Copacabana neighborhood by a woman who claimed to be a “clairvoyant” and had a dire message: The widow’s daughter was going to fall ill and die soon.

The widow, a longtime believer of mysticism, trusted the phony psychic because her daughter had “faced psychological problems since adolescence,” the police said.

The widow made a series of bank transfers of around $1 million over a two-week period for a “spiritual treatment,” after being encouraged by her daughter. During that time, the daughter allegedly began isolating her mother from the people she regularly had contact with, along with dismissing many of her domestic employees. This raised suspicions with the widow, who stopped the payments.

Authorities alleged that at this point the daughter and her alleged associates attacked and threatened the widow. They confined her to her home, returned regularly to take artwork and jewelry, and forced her to make additional money transfers.

Along with the Sol Poente painting, authorities said 15 other works of art were stolen from the widow that she had inherited from her deceased husband, including additional works by do Amaral and Di Cavalcanti.

Video released by authorities showed a number of paintings discovered under a bed allegedly owned by one of the thieves, but other paintings were also discovered after being sold by the daughter. Three pieces of art were found in a gallery in the Brazilian city of Sao Paolo, while two others were discovered in the Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires, in Argentina. A representative for the famed museum in Buenos Aires told the Associated Press that its founder who bought the art believed the sale was legitimate because a member of the family—the daughter—was selling it.

At least three people have been arrested for the con so far, including the daughter, according to local media. It’s believed other associates are still at large.

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