'Surprised' Brazilian police find stolen Picasso print in Sao Paolo attic

Inspector Cesar Carlos Dias said information obtained through wiretaps of gang members involved in robberies led police to Ueslei Barros, a suspect in the robbery this month.

Barros led police to one stolen Picasso print, 'The Painter and the Model,' hidden in an attic of a building on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, Dias said.

Valuable: The Picasso print 'Minotaur, Drinker and Women', one of the art pieces stolen in the robbery at Sao Paolo's Estacao Pinacoteca Museum on June 12

'We were taken by surprise,' Dias said.

'We were keeping an eye on Barros and two other men because we had information they were planning to steal automatic teller machines and rob banks.

'In a tapped phone conversation, the Picasso print was mentioned.'

Barros and the other two men, who were not involved in the art heist, were arrested Friday night in a parking lot of a shopping mall, Dias said.

Barros, a 30-year-old Sao Paulo resident, was arrested on charges of robbery and had not yet been assigned a court appointed attorney.

Marcelo Araujo, director of the Estacao Pinacoteca Museum, told reporters the print was in its frame and in 'perfect condition.' It was discovered inside a plastic bag.

On June 12, three robbers also stole Picasso's print 'Minotaur, Drinker and Women' and the paintings 'Women at the Window' by Emiliano DiCavalcanti and 'Couple' by Lasar Segall.

The prints and paintings have a combined estimated value of 1million Brazilian reals (around £315,000), museum officials said previously.

The robbery was the second high-profile art theft in Sao Paolo in less than a year.

In December, the paintings 'Portrait of Suzanne Bloch' by Picasso and 'O Lavrador de Cafe' by Candido Portinari, an influential Brazilian artist, were stolen from the Sao Paulo Museum of Art by three men who used a crowbar and car jack to force open a steel door.

The framed paintings were found on January 8 in a house on the outskirts of Sao Paulo.

One of the suspects in that heist - a former TV chef - turned himself over to police in January, who already had two suspects in custody.