Brazilian Police have arrested a suspect in the heist of two Pablo Picasso prints from a museum in Sao Paulo and recovered one of the works, police and a museum official said on Saturday.
Inspector Cesar Carlos Dias said information obtained through wiretaps of gang members involved in robberies led police to Ueslei Barros, a suspect in the July robbery.
Barros led police to one stolen Picasso print, The Painter and the Model, hidden in an attic of a building on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, Dias said.
"We were taken by surprise," Dias said. "We were keeping an eye on Barros and two other men because we had information they were planning to steal automatic teller machines and rob banks. In a tapped phone conversation, the Picasso print was mentioned."
Barros and the other two men, who were not involved in the art heist, were arrested on Friday night in a parking lot of a shopping mall, Dias said.
Barros, a 30-year-old Sao Paulo resident, was arrested on charges of robbery and had not yet been assigned a court appointed attorney.
Marcelo Araujo, director of the Estacao Pinacoteca Museum, told reporters the print was in its frame and in "perfect condition." Police found the print inside a plastic bag.
On June 12, three robbers also stole Picasso's print Minotaur, Drinker and Women and the paintings Women at the Window by Emiliano DiCavalcanti and Couple by Lasar Segall.
The prints and paintings have a combined estimated value of 1 million Brazilian reals ($630,000 at current exchange rates), museum officials said previously.
