priceless works of art looted by bolsonaris during protests

The damage was quite severe, two days after demonstrations in the Brazilian capital.

Thousands of pro-Bolsonaro activists stormed Brazil’s places of power on Sunday and damaged three buildings: the Planalto Presidential Palace, the Supreme Court, and the Congress headquarters. This gem of modernist architecture is a veritable museum, with some of the country’s most prized works of art. The Planalto Palace, seat of the President of the Republic, has a collection of more than 700 works. The city of Brasilia has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987. A master canvas was penetrated, statues were tagged and the Louis XIV clock was destroyed.

A hole-in-the-wall modernist masterpiece

In the Planalto Palace, Emiliano Di Cavalcanti’s modernist canvas is punched in seven holes. It dates from 1962 and represents women chatting on a balcony by the sea, one of them playing a guitar. Its value was estimated at eight million reals, or 1.4 million euros, in Mays “works of this kind usually sell for five times as much at auction”, wrote the Brazilian presidency. Recovery can take up to 90 days.

The precious stained glass window shattered

At Congress headquarters, Marianne Peretti’s “Araguaia” stained glass window was smashed by demonstrators. It dates from 1977 and is visible from the Green Room, the equivalent of the Salle des Quatre-Colonnes in the National Assembly in France. Where journalists and MPs meet. The piece is made of tempered and sandblasted glass. French-Brazilian artist

is the only woman on the teamOscar Niemeyer during the construction of Brasilia,

as reminded by O Tempo. He associated with architects for 25 years and participated in the construction of the capital’s cathedral.

A marked statue

The granite statue “La Justice”, sculpted in 1961 by Brazilian Alfredo Ceschiatti, is in front of the Supreme Court, on the Place des Trois Powers, opposite the presidential palace. This monumental work more than three meters high represents a seated woman, eyes closed, with a sword in her hand. On Sunday, he was tagged, with the words “Perdeu, mané” (you lose, poor idiot), on his chest. The phrase was used by a Supreme Court judge, Luis Roberto Barroso, to address a Bolsonaris who challenged him about the reliability of electronic ballot boxes in November, shortly after Jair Bolsonaro’s second round loss to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. from the presidential election.

Broken 18th century clock

Only one masterpiece should not be restored: a clock made by Balthazar Martinot, watchmaker of France’s King Louis XIV, of the Boulle marquetry. Found in the ground, on the third floor of the Presidential Palace, a brown and gold casket that was badly damaged, a gaping hole in the place of the dial. According to the Presidency, it was a gift from the Court of the Sun King to the Portuguese crown, which King Joao VI brought to Brazil in 1808, when he fled Lisbon as Napoleon’s troops approached.

Only two watches of this type were made by this watchmaker: the other, half the size of the one damaged in Brazil, is on display at the Palace of Versailles. Recovery of the Brasilia example is considered “very difficult” by Rogerio Carvalho, head of heritage at the Presidential Palace, quoted in the press release.

A stolen bronze statue

Among other works looted, a bronze sculpture by Bruno Giorgi “O Flautista”, which the BBC said was worth 250,000 rials, was destroyed. The pieces were scattered all over the third floor of the presidential palace. A wooden sculpture by Frans Krajcberg was also damaged, branches broken off and thrown away. Another statue lost, “La danseuse” (1920), by the Italian-Brazilian Victor Brecheret, is no longer at its base, in the Chamber of Deputies.

A historic table as a barricade

The desk of President Juscelino Kubitscheck (1956-1961), who decided and directed the development of Brasilia, was broken. The dark brown, designed by Oscar Niemeyer and only daughter Anna Maria, was used as a barricade by rioters. According to the daily Folha, at the Federal Court, President Rosa Weber’s chair designed by designer Jorge Zalszupin was torn up. The original copy of the 1988 Constitution was also stolen.

Finally, at the Planalto Palace, the painting “Bandeira do Brasil” by Jorge Eduardo (1995) depicting the country’s flag “found floating on top of water that covered the entire floor, after vandals opened a fire hydrant installed there”,

according to the Brazilian government. About a thousand protesters were arrested and detained

after the invasion of the Brazilian powerhouses on Sunday by supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro.