Brazilian authorities on Wednesday arrested the daughter of a deceased art collector for allegedly orchestrating a scam in which an alleged psychic moved into her eighty-year-old mother’s home and stole millions, police and media reports said.
The Rio de Janeiro woman is accused of cheating on her 82-year-old mother in a months-long scheme and extorting paintings, jewels and cash totaling 725 million reais ($145 million), police told AFP With.
Among the 16 paintings stolen by the woman and five suspected accomplices – three of whom were also arrested – were works by Brazilian masters Tarsila do Amaral and Emiliano Di Cavalcanti, according to local media reports.
The arrested woman is reportedly the daughter of Jean Boghici, a famous Brazilian art collector who died in 2015.
Her mother, Boghici’s widow and heiress to his collection, was allegedly tricked into believing her daughter was ill and then persuaded to hire a woman with alleged healing powers to perform “spiritual treatment,” according to news site G1.
The mother paid around $970,000 from January to February 2020 but became suspicious and halted the payments.
The “psychic” and her accomplices then allegedly threatened and attacked the widow, isolating her at home for nearly a year as they stole her artwork and jewels.
The stolen paintings included “O Sono” and “Sol Poente” by Do Amaral, a master of Brazilian modernism.
The latter, a famous 1929 oil painting, was found under a suspect’s bed, according to G1.
Other works have been sold to art galleries and at least two have ended up in the hands of Argentine businessman Eduardo Costantini, founder of the Museum of Latin American Art in Buenos Aires (Malba), the museum told the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper.
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