Second Chácara do Céu Museum Art Theft Feb. 24, 2006: Matisse Garden

Summary: Latin America is short a Matisse garden since the painter's Luxembourg Garden is one of five second Chácara do Céu Museum art theft casualties.

Henri Matisse's Luxembourg Garden (Portuguese: Jardim de Luxemburgo), 1905 oil on canvas stolen during Chácara do Céu Museum 2006 art theft: Federal Bureau of Investigation Art Crime Team, Public Domain, via FBI

The Chácara do Céu Museum art theft Feb. 24, 2006, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, answers to descriptions as Latin America's biggest art crime and as one of the world's largest too. It boasted a boon unbeknownst to the two perpetrators of the somewhat similar second Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft March 18, 1990, in Boston, Massachusetts. It clutched Henri Matisse's (Dec. 31, 1869-Nov. 3, 1954) Luxembourg Garden while the Gardner perpetrators never considered The Terrace, first Matisse displayed publicly in North America. The Gardner Museum art crime, unlike the Chácara art robbery's across-the-board significant diversions, divulged no details for diverting two very significant, and 11 less significant, artworks.

The Chácara Museum art theft exiled a Nobel Prize winner's poems and four paintings, one each by an Impressionist, a Post-Impressionist, a surrealist and a modernist.

Carnival's Carmelite Block, named after Carmelite convent in Rio de Janeiro's Santa Teresa neighborhood, provided the costumed, distracting setting for Chácara do Céu Museum's second art theft in 2006; Santa Teresa Convent (upper left) in "Vista da Lagoa do Boqueirão e do Aqueduto de Santa Teresa" (View of Boqueirão Lagoon with the Lapa Aqueduct [Arcos da Lapa] and Convent of Saint Therese [Convento de Santa Teresa]), ca. 1790 oil on canvas by Leandro Joaquim (ca. 1738-ca. 1798); Museu Histórico Nacional collection, on deposit in the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Four perpetrators in costumes, masks and wigs and two in a van at the front gate frightened guards, staff and visitors after furnishing museum entrance fees. They gashed alarm and surveillance systems after gathering one staff person, three security guards and five tourists, from Australia and New Zealand, into the staff office. They had grenades and guns and hit one of three unarmed security guards hired from a private firm in the face and another over the head.

José Nascimento, director of museums for Brazil's Culture Ministry, indicated that no security team is impelled to intercept armed interventions, especially those with grenades and guns. He judged that the second Chácara do Céu Museum art theft "makes it clear that a specialist group exists" to jeopardize public viewing of Rio-based art.

Former director of Brazil's museums José Nascimento clarifies that security teams are not required to intercept armed interventions and views Chácara do Céu Museum's second art theft as suggestive of a specialist group aimed at jeopardizing public viewing of Rio's artworks; José do Nascimento Junior, 2009-2013 president of Instituto Brasileiro de Museus (IBRAM), with Ana de Hollanda, 2011-2012 Minister of Culture of Brazil, at two-year celebration of IBRAM's creation; Brasília, Jan. 20, 2011: Ministério da Cultura, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr

The high price of policy premiums keeps museums such as the Chácara do Céu and the Isabella Stewart Gardner economically vulnerable because of non-existent insurance coverage. It left the Chácara and the Gardner museums uninsured, despite their two respective sets of art crimes in 1989 and 2006 and in 1970 and 1990.

Coverage means that the insurance company maintains legal ownership after payout on a loss claim, during the artwork's misplacement and subsequent to the stolen art's manifestation. Companies sometimes negotiate exchanging recovered artworks for returned payouts, as noted with Chubb Limited, Susan Grant Murta and Norman Rockwell's (Feb. 3, 1894-Nov. 8, 1978) Lazybones.

NSW Treasury Managed Funds offered the Art Gallery of New South Wales no exchange concerning Frans van Mieris the Elder's (April 16, 1635-March 12, 1681) Cavalier.

Chácara do Céu Museum shares with Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum the plight of uninsured stolen artworks; coverage equates to legal ownership by insurance companies after loss payouts; exchanging recovered artworks for returned payouts may happen, as with Norman Rockwell's recovered Lazybones (left), or may not happen, as with Frans van Mieris the Elder's unrecovered Cavalier: "Lazybones," Public Domain, via FBI Art Theft; "A Cavalier (Self Portrait)," Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The second Chácara do Céu Museum art theft proved mysterious, despite a 32,000-strong police presence throughout Carnival celebrations, because of evidence-contaminating chaos from 10,000 neighborhood revelers. It quashed access to Dalí's (May 11, 1904-Jan. 23, 1989) balconies, Monet's (Nov. 14, 1840-Dec. 5, 1926) seascapes and Neruda's (July 12, 1904-Sept. 23, 1973) bulls. It raised Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft casualty-like questions of ransom and ravage, with Matisse's gardens and Picasso's (Oct. 25, 1881-April 8, 1973) dancers burned. Its aftermath suggested dissimilar alternatives to fiery destruction on Morro dos Prazeres (Mountains of Pleasures) with a Belarus-based internet site auctioning Matisse's garden for $13 million.

Who took the 15.95- by 12.59-inch (40.5- by 32-centimeter) inventory number MCC425, titled Luxembourg Garden from 1905, during the second Chácara do Céu Museum art theft?

A suggested fate of two of stolen artworks, Matisse's Luxembourg Garden and Picasso's Dance, is destruction by fire at a campsite in the Morro dos Prazeres favela (slum) in Rio de Janeiro's the Santa Teresa neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro's Zona Sul (Southern Zone); Morro dos Prazeres, Jan. 2, 2013: Tiago Celestino, CC BY 2.0, 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:

Henri Matisse's Luxembourg Garden (Portuguese: Jardim de Luxemburgo), 1905 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

Carnival's Carmelite Block, named after Carmelite convent in Rio de Janeiro's Santa Teresa neighborhood, provided the costumed, distracting setting for Chácara do Céu Museum's second art theft in 2006; Santa Teresa Convent (upper left) in "Vista da Lagoa do Boqueirão e do Aqueduto de Santa Teresa" (View of Boqueirão Lagoon with the Lapa Aqueduct [Arcos da Lapa] and Convent of Saint Therese [Convento de Santa Teresa]), ca. 1790 oil on canvas by Leandro Joaquim (ca. 1738-ca. 1798); Museu Histórico Nacional collection, on deposit in the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LeandroJoaquim-1790-Arcos.jpg

José do Nascimento Junior, 2009-2013 president of Instituto Brasileiro de Museus (IBRAM), with Ana de Hollanda, 2011-2012 Minister of Culture of Brazil, at two-year celebration of IBRAM's creation; Brasília, Jan. 20, 2011: Ministério da Cultura, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/ministeriodacultura/5373624748/

Chácara do Céu Museum shares with Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum the plight of uninsured stolen artworks; coverage equates to legal ownership by insurance companies after loss payouts; exchanging recovered artworks for returned payouts may happen, as with Norman Rockwell's recovered Lazybones (left), or may not happen, as with Frans van Mieris the Elder's unrecovered Cavalier:
"Lazybones": Public Domain, via FBI Art Theft @ https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/philadelphia/news/press-releases/fbi-seeks-missing-norman-rockwell-painting-stolen-40-years-ago-today
"A Cavalier (Self Portrait)": Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Frans-van-mieris-thecavalier.jpg

A suggested fate of two of stolen artworks, Matisse's Luxembourg Garden and Picasso's Dance, is destruction by fire at a campsite in the Morro dos Prazeres favela (slum) in the Santa Teresa neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro's Zona Sul (Southern Zone); Morro dos Prazeres, Jan. 2, 2013: Tiago Celestino, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Morro_dos_Prazeres_(RJ)_-_01.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. 12 May 2017. "The Second Chácara do Céu Museum Art Theft Feb. 24, 2006: Two Dalí Balconies." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-second-chacara-do-ceu-museum-art.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 Downie, Andrew. 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