The Chácara do Céu Museum robbery at Carnival
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2006
This case is a work of fiction. The characters, names, places and events in the game do not portray real people. The account below is a factual summary, based on public sources, of the case that served as inspiration.
On the afternoon of February 24, 2006, the first day of Carnival, four armed men entered the Chácara do Céu Museum in the Santa Teresa neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro. They overpowered security within minutes, held staff and visitors hostage, among them five foreign tourists, and ordered the closed-circuit cameras switched off. Outside, the Carmelitas street party was coming down the neighborhood's slopes with thousands of revelers.
In about half an hour the group took four paintings, by Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Claude Monet and Henri Matisse, along with a book of Picasso engravings. The works had no alarm and were fixed to the wall with nylon cords; the guards were unarmed. The thieves escaped and mixed into the Carnival crowd. The loss was estimated at about 10 million dollars, and the case made the FBI's list of the ten biggest art crimes. Remains of the material that protected the paintings were found burned on a hill in the city, and the works were never recovered.
Sources
In the game
Block on the Hill
Mirante Museum, a collector's mansion high in Santa Teresa, Rio de Janeiro. Carnival Friday, 4 p.m. The Bloco das Corujas street party was coming down the hill outside the gate, with a thousand revelers and a full drum band.
The game borrows the museum high in Santa Teresa, the street party passing the gate, the switched-off cameras and the paintings held only by nylon cords. The idea of someone on the inside drawing the way, the characters, the details of the investigation and the outcome are fiction.
