The political and financial fallout from the Petrobras corruption scandal unfolding
in Brazil has been staggering. Brazilians are angry, and rightfully so.
The investigation known as “Operation Car Wash” alleges that local
politicians and executives spent years filling their pockets with cash
scraped off the top of Brazil’s nationally-controlled oil company, doing
indelible damage to Petrobras’s bottom line and to foreign investors’ faith in Brazil.
Embezzled cash was allegedly parked in items including apartments, jewelry, and luxury cars—it was the “gift” of a $78,000 Land Rover
that set the investigation into motion in 2013. The accused also bought
art, some of it spectacular. Thanks to the Petrobras investigation, now
the public can enjoy some of the privately-owned works that Brazilian
police have confiscated.
Rio de Janeiro, Postcard, Vik Muniz, 2013.(Museu Oscar Neimeyer)
The
works include pieces by notable Brazilian modern and contemporary
artists such as Vik Muniz, Tarsila do Amaral, and Pedro Motta, and are
on display at the Oscar Niemeyer Museum in Curitiba, Brazil—the home
base of the Petrobras investigation The exhibit, highlighted by the Wall Street Journal, opened in April and has been extended until November due to its popularity. A ticket costs R$9 (about $2.50).
Untitled, Cicero Dias.(Museu Oscar Neimeyer)
The
exhibit is a win not only for the museum, but also for the police, who
simply didn’t have the proper storage space and conditions for the
works, Curitiba’s police chief, Igor Romário de Paula, told the Wall
Street Journal.
And for lovers of Brazilian art, there may be
more to come. The museum has yet to show any of the art confiscated from
Petrobras’s former head of engineering and services, Renato Duque.
According to the Wall Street Journal, police seized more than 130 works
from Duque’s apartment, including pieces by Spanish surrealist Joan Miró
and Brazilian musician and painter Heitor dos Prazeres. (Duque’s lawyer
denied the works were purchased with illegal funds.)
If Duque is found guilty of money laundering,
it’s possible the pieces will go up for auction—or perhaps into another
public exhibition.
Frutos, Miguel Rio Branco.(Museu Oscar Neimeyer)Mesa 12, 1990, Amilcar de Castro.(Museu Oscar Neimeyer)
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