Sawt Falasteen - Eight Matisse engravings stolen from Brazil library

News reports said two armed men stole the works from the Mario de Andrade Library and also took five works by the Brazilian painter Candido Portinari.

"The pair held up a security guard and an elderly couple who were visiting the library," police said in a statement sent to AFP.

"They both went into the glass dome where the documents were kept. The put the documents and the eight engravings into a canvas bag. The pair then fled through the main exit," police said.

Authorities have yet to disclose the value of the stolen pieces, which were part of a modern art exhibition entitled "From the Book to the Museum" highlighting a collaboration between the library and the Museum of Modern Art of Sao Paulo.

According to the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper, the stolen work included collages printed in Matisse's 1947 art book "Jazz."

The exhibition was scheduled to end Sunday.

The Sao Paulo mayor's office said in a statement that law enforcement were on scene gathering evidence at the library, which is equipped with security cameras.

The art heist comes nearly two months after a group of thieves broke into the Louvre museum in Paris, stealing jewelry valued at around $100 million within a matter of minutes.

L.AbuTayeh--SF-PST