New twist to the most important theft of contemporary art that occurred in Spain. The Heritage Brigade of the National Police has located one of the two portraits that Francis Bacon (Dublin, 1909-Madrid, 1992) painted of his partner, a work valued at five million euros that still remained to be recovered. The robbery occurred in 2015 at José Capelo’s home, in Plaza de la Encarnación, next to the Senate, in one of the safest areas of Madrid. The thieves took five portraits that the Irish painter, a great representative of the expressionist school, had given to his friend as an inheritance from him and that decorated his master bedroom. The oil paintings are valued at 30 million euros.
The recovery of the painting has been possible after the arrest last February of two people responsible for receiving the two stolen paintings that remained to be located. Thanks to these arrests and the collaboration of one of the detainees, the agents have managed to find the portrait in a property in Madrid, police sources say. The detainees maintained contacts with criminal groups and gangs in Eastern Europe. The investigation remains open to the search for the fifth portrait, which is still missing, although researchers have hopes of recovering it and closing the circle of investigations that have lasted more than nine years.
The police have been able to verify that it is one of the stolen paintings, since it corresponds to the photographs provided by its owner. On the back of the oil painting the following information is written: “Study for a portrait of José Capelo, Francis Bacon, 1989.” The Irish painter used to sign behind the frame of his works. In July 2017, Heritage Brigade agents managed to recover three of the five stolen works thanks to an agreement with one of those involved in the theft.
The gang that took part in these events in 2015 was made up of a diverse cast of people, including an art dealer, stonemasons and jewelers from the Rastro de Madrid, as well as an Uber driver. Since then, the five paintings have passed through different hands in failed attempts to sell them. Desperate purposes that have provided clues to agents to locate the works.
Since the investigation began, 16 people allegedly involved in the robbery have been arrested, among whom are the plotters and material authors, in addition to the alleged mastermind of the plot, Cristóbal García, an art dealer, who denies his involvement in the case despite the fact that a note with José Capelo’s home address was found in his house. The hard core of the group fell into police networks in 2016. Despite the evidence obtained against all the members of the gang, especially the alleged mastermind, they were only convicted of the crime of receiving a fine of 3,600 euros, since they were not was able to prove that they were the material authors of the robbery.
The convicted men and main suspects in the theft attempted to sell the works in Spain on at least four occasions without success. The first, in September 2015, just two months after the coup occurred. The protagonist was Ricardo Barbastro, 46 years old, one of the detainees. He called a cousin of his who worked at an art gallery and offered him the paintings. They hadn’t spoken for 17 years. Several of the detainees attended the meeting. The gallery owner rejected the offer. “Everything seemed very strange to me,” he told the police.
The second failed attempt was during a meeting held in February 2016 at number 4 Duque de Alba Street in Majadahonda (Madrid), as confirmed by the police investigation and described in the judicial summary, to which EL PAÍS had access. The gang was discovered after the third attempt to sell it to an antiques dealer in Sitges who consulted Art Register, a British company, about the painting and was informed that it was stolen. The company notified the Police Heritage Brigade. The fingerprint of the photograph they sent to the antique dealer led to the authors.
In January 2021, the last attempt to sell the two portraits that remained to be recovered took place. Arthur Brand, known in the Netherlands as “the art detective,” contacted the Police and showed them a video in which the works appeared next to a cover of EL PAÍS. A buyer alerted him that they were being offered. An operation was organized in Madrid to arrest the people offering the works, but when they were arrested the paintings were not in their possession. This failed operation and the arrest of these people has provided relevant clues for the location of the recovered room of oil paintings. The investigations continue into what is considered the largest theft of contemporary art in Spain, a coup that has demonstrated the impossible task of selling a bacon stolen.
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