Written by ReutersRio de Janeiro, Brazil
48-year-old Brazilian Sabine Coll Boghici was arrested on Wednesday on charges that she was part of a bizarre scheme to defraud her 82-year-old mother Genevieve Boghici, wife of the late art collector Jean Boghici, out of money, artwork and jewelry in the Total value of around 724 million reais (142.42 million US dollars).
Her arrest has uncovered a disturbing web of fraud that police say has lasted for years and involved suspected psychics in swindling artworks from some of Brazil’s most important painters. Four other people have also been arrested and two others, Diana Rosa Aparecida Stanesco Vuletic and Slavko Vuletic, are on the run.
The scam began in 2020 when Genevieve was approached by an alleged psychic with prophecies about her daughter’s impending death.
The victim was then taken to several other psychics, who police said used her daughter’s personal information to get her distraught mother to wire money to pay for “spiritual treatment.”
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In the months that followed, police allege that the suspects physically threatened Genevieve and that she was held at home by her daughter for months.
Sabine and an accomplice posing as a psychic “started getting the artwork out of[the mother’s]house, claiming that the painting was cursed with something negative, with negative energy to pray for,” Gilberto said Ribeiro, Rio de Janeiro Police Officer.
After being abused by Sabine and her accomplices for almost a year, the victim decided to go to the police.
Police say 16 paintings were stolen, including works by renowned Brazilian artists such as Cicero Dias, Rubens Gerchman and Alberto Guignard.
Tarsila do Amaral’s painting Sol Poente after it was confiscated during a police operation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Wednesday. Credit: Policia Civil do Rio de Janeiro/Portal
Three pieces by the iconic modernist painter Tarsila do Amaral – “O Sono”, “Sol Poente” and “Pont Neuf” – were also stolen, which police estimated together to be worth 700 million reais ($137.69 million). .
Amaral’s “Sol Poente” was among 11 paintings found in one of the psychic’s homes during a police raid in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday.
Authorities also seized three paintings in Sao Paulo. Two were sold to a museum in Buenos Aires but have not yet been recovered.
Police say seven people are suspected of involvement in the years-long crime and face charges of embezzlement, robbery, extortion, false imprisonment and criminal association.