• A woman in Brazil has been detained on suspicion of defrauding her mother for more than $140 million (£114 million) in artwork, money, and jewelry by hiring a psychic.
• According to reports, the suspected victim is the widow of a prominent art collector from Brazil.
• Her daughter is charged with taking her artwork while making up a curse about it using a psychic.
• One painting—by one of Brazil’s most renowned painters—was allegedly discovered hidden under a bed.
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A woman in Brazil has been detained on suspicion of defrauding her mother for more than $140 million (£114 million) in artwork, money, and jewelry by hiring a psychic.

According to reports, the suspected victim is the widow of a prominent art collector from Brazil. Her daughter is charged with taking her artwork while making up a curse about it using a psychic. One painting—by one of Brazil’s most renowned painters—was allegedly discovered hidden under a bed.

The fraud reportedly started in 2020 when the victim was convinced to pay for therapy after being informed by a purported psychic that her daughter was ill, according to authorities in Rio de Janeiro and local media sources.

The daughter and a companion who pretended to be a psychic allegedly “began to take the artwork from the house, alleging that the picture was cursed with something negative, with negative energy, and needed to be prayed over” in the months that followed.

According to investigators, the plot continued to involve a number of accomplices.

The victim was reportedly mistreated by the daughter and the other accused while they kept her at home for months.

Police officer Gilberto Ribeiro told Reuters that “they seized 16 paintings,” including well-known Brazilian painters’ creations.

Another cop chimed in, “We found in the preliminary check that all the attributes of the seized paintings are compatible with the genuine paintings.

Theft also included three works by Tarsila do Amaral, a well-known Brazilian modernist painter, with a combined police value of $137.69 million.

Local media said that one of the paintings, Sol Poente, was discovered under one of the suspect’s beds and that other pieces had purportedly been sold to art galleries.

According to the police, seven people are accused of being involved in the long-running crime and are being held on counts of theft, robbery, extortion, false imprisonment, and criminal association.

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