A multimillion-dollar Matisse painting stolen from a Venezuelan museum was found in Miami

FBI reported that the $3.7 million Matisse painting was found in Miami after it was stolen from a Venezuelan museum a decade ago.

 

The museum purchased the painting in 1981 for more than $400,000. In December 2002, the museum reported it stolen.

 

After an extensive investigation by Venezuela, Spain, France, U.K., Interpol and FBI, a pair of undercover agents posing as buyers tracked down the painting and finally arrested Pedro Antonio Marcuello Guzman (46) of Miami, and Maria Martha Elisa Ornelas Lazo (50) of Mexico City.  After the arrest, the missing puzzles started to assemble for the whole story.

 

A Caracas newspaper suggested the swap happened during a loan in Spanish exhibit in 1997. It was an insider job claimed Marcuello according to MiamiHerald.com. Maria Ornelas Lazo hopped on a plane with the painting and carried the painting through customs on Monday at Miami Int’l Airport.  After a few meetings with the undercover agents, the duo was arrested. (MiamiHerald.com)