Second Chácara do Céu Museum Art Theft Feb. 24, 2006: Monet Seascape

Summary: Latin America finds itself short a Monet for public view since the artist's seascape is one of five second Chácara do Céu Museum art theft casualties.

Claude Monet's Marine (Portuguese: Marinha), 1880-1980 oil on canvas stolen during Chácara do Céu Museum 2006 art theft: Federal Bureau of Investigation Art Crime Team, Public Domain, via FBI

The second Chácara do Céu Museum art theft perpetrators March 18, 1990, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, absconded with French Impressionist, French Post-Impressionist, Spanish modern and Spanish surrealist artworks and Spanish poetry.

Beware of six Carnival celebrators who bought museum tickets while bearing grenades, guns and knives under costumes, masks and wigs like 10,000 other Carmelite bloc revelers. The change from art-loving visitors to art-grabbing perpetrators called up one-half hour for countermanding alarm and surveillance systems and for collecting four paintings and one book. Displacement of five valuable artworks between 4 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. Brasília Time (7 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Coordinated Universal Time) demonstrated decision-making before the deed.

Extraction of Henri Matisse's (Dec. 31, 1869-Nov. 3, 1954) gardenscape and of Oscar-Claude Monet's (Nov. 14, 1840-Dec. 5, 1926) seascape emphasized the Chácara's French familial origins.

Salvador Dalí's (May 11, 1904-Jan. 23, 1989) balconies, Matisse's garden, Monet's seascape and Pablo Picasso's (Oct. 25, 1881-April 8, 1973) bulls and dance favored the outdoors.

Monet's abundant artistic production generated many world-famous glimpses into rambunctious and reserved nature through bloom times at his property, Giverny, in France, homeland of Chácara's ideator. The Museo da Chácara do Céu (Museum of the Ranch of the Sky), like the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts, houses its builder's collections. It is the Brazilian and European art-, book-, object-filled architectural legacy of Raymundo Ottoni de Castro Maya (March 22, 1894-July 29, 1968), industrialist from Paris, France.

The second Chácara do Céu Museum art theft, in its non-closure and repeatability despite security updates, somewhat jeopardizes viewing experiences at a French-born Brazilianist's favorite residence.

As with Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Chácara do Céu Museum was the home of collector Raymundo Ottoni de Castro Maya; Chácara do Céu's art-loving businessman in Museus Castro Maya (MCM) Catalogue ca. 1930-1935: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Architecture, art, books, furnishings, grounds and views keep the Chácara do Céu's three levels staffed and visited since the museum's opening to the public in 1968. They lead to Chácara do Céu's world renown, even to the Lands Down Under, as an architectural landmark, an 8,000-plus-volume library and a hundred-plus-million-dollar art collection. Contemporary newspaper coverage mentioned Australia and New Zealand as the homelands of the five tourists mugged by the second Chácara do Céu Museum art theft perpetrators. Newspaper articles at the time noted an estimated $50 million value for the five nabbed artworks and nothing for on-person possessions netted from the nine hostages.

A gallery owner-operator and a private curator offered overlapping observations on the French and Spanish origins of the second Chácara do Céu Museum art theft casualties.

Jean Boghici (Jan. 28, 1928-May 31, 2015), Ismail-born Romanian friend of Salvador Dalí, perceived an "unscrupulous" art collector planning artwork thefts for ransom upon their return.

Christina Penna queued up expert experience as a private curator cataloguing Cândido Portinari's (Dec. 29, 1903-Feb. 6, 1962) artworks in Brazil, including those at the Chácara. She reminds Brazilians that "This is very serious, for such an important Brazilian museum to have this loss" since "I think they knew what they wanted." The "globalization of this kind of crime" suggests that "Brazil is now part of the international circuit of art robbery" that sequesters artworks into private collections.

Who took the 25.59- by 35.83-inch (65- by 91-centimeter) painting titled Marine from 1880-1890, inventory number MCC424, during the second Chácara do Céu Museum art theft?

Chácara do Céu Museum impresses visitors with luxuriously furnished rooms and carefully displayed artworks; Chácara do Céu's dining room, Monday, April 23, 2012, 15:21: Halley Pacheco de Oliveira, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Claude Monet's Marine (Portuguese: Marinha), 1880-1980 oil on canvas stolen during Chácara do Céu Museum 2006 art theft: Federal Bureau of Investigation Art Crime Team, Public Domain, via FBI @ https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/violent-crime/art-theft/fbi-top-ten-art-crimes/theft-museu-chacara-do-ceu-rio-de-janeiro

As with Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Chácara do Céu Museum was the home of collector Raymundo Ottoni de Castro Maya; Chácara do Céu's art-loving businessman in Museus Castro Maya (MCM) Catalogue ca. 1930-1935: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Castro_Maya,_1930-35.jpg

Chácara do Céu Museum impresses visitors with luxuriously furnished rooms and carefully displayed artworks; Chácara do Céu's dining room, Monday, April 23, 2012, 15:21: Halley Pacheco de Oliveira, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Museu_da_Chácara_do_Céu_-_Sala_de_Jantar.jpg

For further information:

Agence France-Presse. 26 February 2006. "Brazil Art Heist Is Cloaked by Carnival." The New York Times > World > Americas.
Available @ http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/26/world/americas/brazil-art-heist-is-cloaked-by-carnival.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 19 May 2017. "Second Chácara do Céu Museum Art Theft Feb. 24, 2006: Matisse Garden." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/05/second-chacara-do-ceu-museum-art-theft_19.html

McMahon, Colin. 28 February 2006. "Gunmen Use Brazil's Carnival as Cover in $50 Million Art Heist." Chicago Tribune > News.
Available @ http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2006-02-28/news/0602280108_1_picasso-art-thieves-million-art-heist

Nikkhah, Roya; and Andrew Downie. 26 February 2006. "Carnival Gang Grabs £30M Art Treasures from Rio Museum." The Telegraph > News > World News > South America.
Available @ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/argentina/1511532/Carnival-gang-grabs-30m-art-treasures-from-Rio-museum.html

Siquara, Carlos Andrei. 5 February 2016. "No Rastro de Obras Perdidas." O Tempo > Magazine > Diversão > Livro.
Available @ http://www.otempo.com.br/divers%C3%A3o/magazine/no-rastro-de-obras-perdidas-1.1226775

Skidmore, Thomas E. 1999. Brazil: Five Centuries of Change in Latin America. Latin American Histories series. New York NY: Oxford University Press.

Tardáguila, Cristina. 2016. A Arte do Descaso. Rio de Janeiro Brazil: Editora Intrínseca.
Available @ https://www.amazon.com.br/Arte-do-Descaso-Cristina-Tard%C3%A1guila/dp/8580578965/ref=sr_1_1_twi_pap_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1452189811&sr=8-1&keywords=a+arte+do+descas