Cuban-American Convicted of Stealing a Matisse Painting

HAVANA TIMES — A Cuban resident Miami was sentenced on Tuesday in federal court to two years and nine months for the theft of a painting by the famous painter Henri Matisse. The art work was stolen from a museum in Venezuela, reported the Café Fuerte website.

In addition to those 33 months in prison, nursing home driver Pedro Antonio Marcuello Guzman, 46, must also serve three years of probation for the crimes of conspiracy, interstate transportation and the possession of the 1925 painting “Odalisque with Red Pants.”

The Cuban-American, along with Mexican citizen Maria Martha Elisa Ornelas Lazo, planned to sell the piece for $740,000 – though it’s currently valued at $3 million.

According to the news article, the international theft led to the search by the Museum of Modern Art in Caracas, Interpol, the US Justice Department and FBI attachés in Caracas and Paris.