A museum in Brazil has taken the idea of ‘found art’ to a whole new level with it’s latest offering – an exhibition made entirely of paintings seized during police raids. The raids targeted criminals associated with political and financial corruption, in Brazil’s biggest clampdown on corruption in it’s history. In the raids, police seized 203 works of art, 48 of which are now on display in the Oscar Niemeyer Museum in Curitiba.
The art was taken mainly from the expensive private homes of those convicted of corruption, including Renato Duque, a former director of Petrobras who, alongside 102 others, was jailed for embezzling $4bn from the state-run company.
A collage by Vik Muniz depicting Rio de Janeiro (all images courtesy the Oscar Niemeyer Museum )
Some of Brazil’s most famed artists can be found at the exhibition – which costs just $1 entry- including Vik Muniz and Aldemir Martins. They say that no one can ever truly own art, that it belongs to the people – well now, it really does.
A painting by Amilcar de Castro at the Oscar Niemeyer Museum’s new exhibition
