$59 Million Under Your Bed
That in effect was recovered from a bed (probably not yours) in Ipanema, the posh beach neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro. The story is a sad one: a wealthy woman was leaving her bank in Copacabana (the other posh beach neighborhhod in Rio) when she was approached by a fake calairvoyant. The old woman was convinced that her daughter was in danger and they she had to pay the fake psychic some money.
This scam went on for a while, but the scamsters got too greedy. They kidnapped the woman and began stealing her art collection. Some of it has been sold, but the scheme seems to have been stopped before murder happened (which surely was where it was going once the woman was kidnapped).
I saw the article in the Guardian written by Tom Phillips. This is the video that show Brazilian police recovering this insanely valuable object. It appeared on the Guardian site.
The recovered painting was Sol Peonte by Tarsila de Amaral, the most important modernist painter in Brazil.
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