'Valuable' Picasso stolen in museum raid

Paintings by Pablo Picasso and Candido Portinari were stolen in a raid on the Sao Paulo Museum of Art today.

The heist lasted just three minutes and part of it was recorded by security cameras.

They stole Picasso’s Portrait of Suzanne Bloch, which he painted in 1904 during his Blue Period and is among the most valuable pieces in the museum’s collection, said museum spokesman Eduardo Cosomano.

They also took O Lavrador de Café by Portinari, a major Brazilian artist.

Local media reports estimated the paintings may be worth around $100m (€70m), but curators said it is difficult to put a price on them because the paintings had not gone to auction.

The thieves used a hydraulic car jack to get past the pull-down metal gate that protects the museum's front entrance.

They then smashed through two glass doors to get to the paintings on the second floor, police said.

“This is a highly professional job, done by people who knew exactly what they were doing,” said lead detective Marcos Gomes de Moura.“Everything indicates they were sent to do it by some wealthy art lover for his own collection – someone who, although wealthy, was not rich enough to buy the paintings,” Mr Moura added.

Sao Paulo police have sent alerts out to try to stop the paintings from leaving Brazil, the detective said. And while he doubts the paintings are being held for ransom, he said police are ruling nothing out.

Security cameras captured video images of three men entering the museum but little else, and the images are of very poor quality, he said.

Police believe there may have been a fourth person acting as a lookout because they found headphones outside the museum close to Sao Paulo’s main avenue.

The two paintings were hung a good distance from one and other – another reason Detective Moura believes the thieves were highly professional.