Aug. 14 (UPI) — Long-sought artworks by Henri Mattise, Paul Cezanne and Pierre-August Renoir worth millions of dollars and stolen in two separate cases have been recovered in Italy and Brazil, police said.
In the Italian city of Parma, authorities announced Friday that searches authorized by the local prosecutor’s office had turned up the three paintings stolen in March.
These include Still Life with Cherries, a pencil-and-watercolor on white paper by the post-impressionist artist Paul Cezanne with an estimated value of $6.9 million, Les Poisson (The Fish), an oil-on-canvas by the impressionist artist Renoir valued at $3.5 million, and Odalisque on the Terrace, a color aquatint on paper by the modernist Matisse with worth an estimated $23,000.
No arrests were reported in connection with the recoveries but the investigations were ongoing, the Carabinieri of Parma province said.
The works were stolen on March 23 from the Fondazione Magnani Rocca museum in Traversetolo, Italy.
Meanwhile, police in Sao Paulo announced Friday that they recovered eight Matisse artworks taken from the Mário de Andrade Library in Sao Bernardo do Campo, which were stolen in December.
Authorities told reporters the engravings were found in a home in the city, where they were being kept by a 44-year-old suspect who was allegedly guarding the pieces for the perpetrator of the crime.
Five other artworks by Candido Portinari, stolen in the same robbery, have not been located and are now thought to have been sold, police said.
The stolen Matisse engravings were part of a joint exhibition with São Paulo Museum of Modern Art titled “From Book to Museum.”