Picasso In Brazil

For the second time in the last 6 months Picasso prints have been stolen and let free into the streets of Sao Paulo. The ones stolen this time were "The Painter and the Model" from 1963 and "Minotaur, Drinker and Women" from 1933, according to a statement from the Sao Paulo Secretary of State for Culture, which oversees the museum. About noon, three armed men paid the $2.45 entrance fee and immediately went to the second-floor gallery where the works were being exhibited, bypassing more valuable pieces, authorities said. The value of these prints were $612,000.

"This indicates to us that they probably received an order" to take those specific works, said Youssef Abou Chain, head of Sao Paulo's organized crime unit. The robbery took about 10 minutes and the museum was nearly empty at the time. The assailants took the pieces -- frames and all -- out of the museum in two bags. The institution has no metal detectors.

Forget the vendor art on the streets of Sao Paulo, I'm paying a visit to that museum. ;-)