[MSN] The Art Newspaper: Found: paintings from the collection of Brazilian money launderer

[MSN]

Found: paintings from the collection of Brazilian money launderer

A Léger and a Basquiat belonging to Edemar Cid Ferreira have been identified

By Charmaine Picard | From News | Posted: 6.3.08

NEW YORK. Two paintings, that went missing after a federal judge ordered
that the art collection of convicted Brazilian money launderer Edemar Cid
Ferreira be confiscated in February 2005, have been located.

British authorities are currently holding Fernand Léger’s painting Les
Papillons (1937). The work was withdrawn from Sotheby’s Impressionist and
Modern Art evening sale on 5 February at the request of Brazilian law
enforcement officials. The same painting had failed to sell at Christie’s
New York on 9 May 2007 (est $1.5m-$2m). It was consigned to both auction
houses by the same seller.

In the US, federal prosecutors filed court papers on 13 February requesting
permission to seize an $8m painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat that was
smuggled into the country.

Jorge Barbosa Pontes, director of Interpol Brazil, told The Art Newspaper
that Basquiat’s Hannibal was offered to a US art dealer who alerted
Brazilian investigators to its whereabouts. Court documents state that the
painting was shipped from London to New York in August 2007 with a declared
value of just $100. Acting on a tip from Brazilian officers, US Customs
agents seized the painting from a storage facility in New York in November.

The two paintings are part of a group of 29 works currently sought by
Interpol that include paintings by Francis Picabia, Robert Rauschenberg, and
Cy Twombly, along with sculptures by Henry Moore and Anish Kapoor, among
others (see right).

In 2006 a Brazilian court sentenced Mr Cid Ferreira, a former president of
the São Paulo Biennial and founder of the non-profit organisation
Brasil-Connects, to 21 years in prison for bank fraud and money laundering
associated with his role as the head of the failed Banco Santos, which left
behind $1bn in debts. He is currently free pending appeal. His lawyer was
unavailable for comment.

The missings works

Paintings: Rufino Tamayo, Dos Figuras; Cy Twombly, Untitled; Frances
Picabia, Les Calanques; Jean Dubuffet, Lieu Rouge au Chateau; Roy
Lichtenstein, Modern Painting with Yellow Interweave; Robert Rauschenberg,
Switch (Sauvage); Serge Poliakoff, Composition Abstraite; Joaquín Torres
García, Figures dans une Structure; Miquel Barceló, Jaune avec Trous; Tracey
Moffatt, Invocations (two works); Adriana Varejão, Tongue with Flower
Pattern; Feng Zheng-Jie, China under 14

Sculptures: Henry Moore, Woman; Anish Kapoor, Untitled; Arcangelo Ianelli,
Untitled; sculptor unknown Roman Togatos

Photographs: Julia Margaret Cameron, Kate Keown; Child’s portrait; Herbert
George Ponting, The Hut at Cape Evans, Looking over to the Borne Glacier at
Noon in the Fading Daylight; Nan Goldin, Siobhan and the Woods,
Provincetown; Raoul Ubac, Mannequin of Salvador Dalí; Vik Muniz, Migrant
Mother, After the Lange (Pictures of Ink); After Richard Serra (Pictures of
Dust); Brassaï, Les Agents avec une Prostituée; Burt Stern, Portrait with no
name; László Moholy-Nagy, Portrait with no Name Source: Interpol, Brazil