The July robbery was the second high-profile art theft in Sao Paolo in less than a year.

In December, the paintings Portrait of Suzanne Bloch by Picasso and O Lavrador de Cafe by Candido Portinari, an influential Brazilian artist, were stolen from the Sao Paulo Museum of Art by three men who used a crowbar and car jack to force open a steel door.

The framed paintings were found Jan 8 in a house on the outskirts of Sao Paulo. One of the suspects in that heist - a former TV chef - turned himself over to police in January, who already had two suspects in custody.

(China Daily via agencies July 21, 2008)