"Of the five paintings by Francis Bacon that were stolen, we have already recovered four, and the fifth one will fall too, for sure." Inspector Montserrat de Pedro, the woman who has been leading the Brigade for five years, has a long career as an investigator in various police destinations. She has worked in the UFAM -Unit for Attention to Family and Women, specialized in the fight against gender violence- and has dealt with drug trafficking and economic crime as well.
In no previous assignment, however, has she enjoyed herself as much as in this one: "When you seize drugs, what you do with them is destroy them, but what you recover here you later see in a museum. It is a fun job and very satisfying. Each case is like a detective novel."
We are in the offices of the National Police's Historical Heritage Brigade, located in a bright corner of one of the buildings in the Canillas police complex (Madrid), headquarters of numerous special units. This one, in particular, is responsible for the investigation and prosecution of crimes related to historical and artistic heritage. It is colloquially known as the Art Police.
This explains why on the wall of one of their offices, Don Quixote and Sancho are depicted next to the logo of the National Police drawn by Antonio Mingote; in another office, there are two pieces by the hyperrealist painter César Galicia hanging, and walking down the main hallway, you come across one of the vintage "meninas" created by the Equipo Crónica in the sixties. The corner where Subinspector Javier's desk is located is adorned with a "non-Picasso," as the study conducted on the painting concluded that it was painted by an imitator, a very skilled one, but an imitator. "When we recover forgeries, they are usually judicially requested for destruction, but if we come across a very interesting piece, we request to keep it. There are a few here, and many others are in the hallways of the Police School in Ávila," the inspector had told us during the interview in her office before showing us the art collection of the Brigade.
Another thing that surprised Montserrat de Pedro when she joined the service was the anonymous tips. The written informants that are received and that allow the recovery of treasures, some of whose existence was not even known. In July 2021, for example, they received a tip that warned them that a Portolan Atlas [a collection of maps in book form used in medieval maritime navigation] was going to leave Spain illegally. The informant provided other clues that led to locating the Atlas, which turned out to be the work of the prestigious Italian cartographer Battista Agnese (1500-1564). Valued at two million euros, it is currently preserved in the National Library.
The inspector mentioned earlier that each case is like a detective novel, and when asked to mention the highlights of the Brigade, they mention, for example, the seizure of 495 Roman coins looted by a farmer in Extremadura -Operation Áurea-, the location of three Iberian sculptures from the 6th century B.C., one of which had ended up in the hands of Paloma Botín -Operation Leona- or the recoveries of a sculpture by Begnini and the Codex Calixtinus, the latter stolen in 2011 from the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.
However, their bestseller, the operation of the Historical Heritage Brigade that the media has followed with more anticipation, is the largest contemporary art theft in Spain, that of the five paintings by Francis Bacon, a series that has been going on for a decade and still lacks at least the final chapter: the discovery of the fifth work.
The Brigade does not want to give details of the operation to avoid jeopardizing the outcome. The latest police move is still recent: the arrest last March in Madrid of a man accused of receiving stolen property, that is, of collaborating with the perpetrators of the crime by helping them hide or sell the paintings. With this latest arrest, the number of people arrested for the theft now totals 16. "We are always investigating the Bacon case, every day since 2015. Right now, several agents are out there making inquiries about the Bacon paintings," says the inspector.
The case fell into the hands of the Brigade in June 2015 when a Madrid resident reported that his house had been robbed, a top-floor apartment with an attic in a central building in Madrid. The man, who worked in the finance sector, according to the brief profiles that have been written about him, explained that the thieves had taken advantage of his trip to London to deactivate the alarm system protecting his home and force the door. The least of his concerns were the collections of ancient coins taken from the safe, as well as other jewelry. The great loss he had suffered, the complainant explained, were five extremely valuable paintings, whose existence he revealed to the world at that moment by providing photographs of five unpublished works by Francis Bacon. Five distorted portraits, like all those of the figurative painter, that seemed to reproduce the face of the complainant himself. The uncataloged works were valued at five million euros each: 25 million in total.
The owner, José Capelo, had guarded the works with the same discretion with which he maintained an intimate friendship with Francis Bacon, who had given him the canvases as gifts. Bacon died at the Ruber Clinic in Madrid at the age of 82 on April 28, 1992, six days after arriving in Spain from London on a private trip. "Technique: oil and pastel on canvas. Dimensions (without frame): 35.5 centimeters by 31. Period: London, 1980s," reads the file of the fifth Bacon, the one that the Historical Heritage Brigade is still searching for.
Eight months after the theft, in February 2016, someone from Sitges (Barcelona) contacted the Art Lost Register (ALR), a private database that contains a wide catalog of stolen, lost, or looted artworks. The person from Sitges wanted to know if they had a specific painting by Francis Bacon registered, for which they attached a photograph. "People turn to this company, for a fee, when they want to buy a work of art, to find out if it is legal or not," explains Subinspector Javier.
The Bacon in question was indeed in the ALR database: its origin was therefore illicit. It was one of the five paintings stolen in June 2015 in Madrid, so the British company informed the Spanish Police. The Historical Heritage Brigade meticulously examined the contents of the email. The metadata of the photograph of the painting attached from Sitges revealed that it had been taken with a rented camera and allowed the identification of the company owning the equipment and the client who had rented it: Cristobal G., a Madrid art dealer.
A note with the victim's address and the camera rental receipt was found in his house. Considered the mastermind of the heist, he would be arrested in May 2016, eleven months after the theft, along with a diverse group of alleged accomplices: Alfredo Cristian F., a VTC vehicle driver and karateka, who, at the request of the dealer, would have hired three professional thieves, the executors of the heist, also arrested; Ricardo B., who allegedly acted as an intermediary and offered the paintings to an antique dealer in Madrid's flea market and his son, both also on the list of detainees along with a jeweler and another flea market merchant.
There was much speculation at the time about how Cristóbal G., the man who allegedly ordered the theft, had known that the reclusive José Capelo owned some paintings completely unknown to art experts. It was mentioned that Baicon, Capelo, and Cristóbal frequented the Cock, a classic cocktail bar in downtown Madrid, and that there the art dealer could have overheard the others talking about the pieces. A weak theory, especially considering that the painter died in 1992, which would mean that Cristóbal would have waited at least two decades to carry out the theft. "My opinion is that they went to rob the house without knowing about the paintings, and that among those who committed the theft, there was someone with enough knowledge of art to understand the importance of what they had found," says Sub-Inspector Javier, who also bases his reasoning on the limited possibilities the thieves had to sell the paintings on the black market. "Whoever steals does it for money, and who would buy them if they can't show them later? Would I buy a Bacon because I like it, just to look at it myself? It doesn't make sense." As a result of the arrests, a year later, in June 2017, the first three canvases were recovered: two of them - joined in a diptych - in one place, and the third in another, all in Madrid, without the Brigade specifying the exact locations and how they found them.
For over five years, they silently pursued the other two Bacons until in February 2024, they carried out several more arrests - more receivers - and two months later returned the fourth canvas to José Capelo. "Throughout these ten years, the paintings have passed through different hands within a group of people dedicated to this," says the sub-inspector.
Each arrest or arrests made by the Brigade has been followed by the discovery of a piece. And since the last arrest was made last February, it would not be surprising if the discovery of the fifth Bacon was close. Inspector De Pedro and her team remain optimistic.
Despite the media attention and cinematic nature of the Bacon case, the truth is that art theft from individuals is not among the main concerns of the Brigade. "What worries us the most is Archaeology. Since the Historical Heritage Law came into effect in 1986, everything found underground does not belong to the finder but to everyone. And there are many people who use detectors, extract what they shouldn't, and try to introduce it into the market. In many cases, falsifying documentation: 'Look, this proves that it belonged to my grandfather's grandfather.' That's what worries us the most because there are many of them, and it's impossible to monitor everyone," explains the inspector. It should be noted that 15 agents are assigned to the brigade, of which currently only a dozen are operational because some colleagues are taking courses or in other circumstances. Many have studied History, Art History, or Fine Arts, but artistic training is not a requirement to join the Brigade. "The important thing is that you enjoy investigating."