Lisbon, Oct. 3, 2025 (Lusa) - The Portuguese public prosecutor's office has recovered four works of art from the collection of former banker João Rendeiro at an auction house in Paris, with an estimated value of €678,000, including the work ‘Os Cães de Barcelona’ (The Dogs of Barcelona) by Paula Rego.
In a statement released on Friday on its official website, the public prosecutor's office (MP) said that, as part of the investigation by the Central Department of Investigation and Penal Action (DCIAP) against João Rendeiro and his wife Maria de Jesus Rendeiro, "instigated for misappropriation of seized assets by the MP and the Judicial Police (PJ), following a request for international judicial cooperation sent to the French authorities, four works of art were recovered in Paris, at the auction house premises".
Among the works - three paintings and a composition/photograph - is “Os Cães de Barcelona” (The Dogs of Barcelona), a work by Paula Rego, with an estimated value of €416,000, which was the subject of classification requests to the Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage (DGPC).
One of these requests, submitted by the painter's son in 2022, received a response stating that the DGPC was legally prevented from initiating a classification process because it was impossible to notify the owner and the whereabouts of the work were unknown at the time.
Also recovered were the paintings ‘O Cavaleiro’ by Amadeo de Souza Cardoso, with an estimated value of €178,000, and ‘Dichter E’ by Karel Appel, with an estimated value of €48,000, and the photographic composition ‘Momento I’ by Juan Munoz, valued at €36,000.
In total, the four works now recovered have an estimated worth of €678,000.
‘Os Cães de Barcelona’, painted in 1964, was inspired by an event that took place in Spain during Franco's political regime, but art historian Raquel Henriques Silva, who in 2021 submitted a reasoned request for the work to be classified, argued that the painting, from the beginning of Paula Rego's artistic career, "refers to the political situation in Portugal".
At the time, the artist learned from news reports in British newspapers of the deaths of hundreds of people due to the fact that the Barcelona authorities, in order to eradicate stray dogs, had scattered poisoned meat in the streets at a time when hunger was widespread.
‘The Dogs of Barcelona’ was first exhibited in 1964 at an exhibition at the London Group, an association of artists that at the time presented works by figures such as David Hockney, Frank Auerbach and Michael Andrews, and was exhibited in Portugal for the first time the following year at the Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes in Lisbon.
The painting is part of a set of works that have disappeared from the personal art collection of João Rendeiro, the former banker found dead on 13 May 2022 in a South African prison, whose wife has been declared the faithful custodian by the Portuguese authorities.
In December 2024, the Judicial Police (PJ - Portugal's main criminal investigation agency) announced that it had recovered nine works of art misappropriated by the former banker from his personal collection and seized by the Public Prosecutor's Office in the case in which João Rendeiro and other administrators of Banco Privado Português (BPP) were convicted of economic and financial crimes that led to the bank's bankruptcy and left thousands of customers affected.
In December 2024, three pieces were recovered: ‘Untitled Painting’ by Robert Longo (sold in March 2021 for €91,500); a white marble bench entitled ‘Selections from Truisms: A Lot of Professional’ by artist Jenny Holzer (around €150,000) and a black marble bench, ‘Nothing Will Stop You’ by artist Jenny Holzer (€135,000).
"In September 2024, the painting ’Rzochow' by artist Frank Stella, which had been illegally sold in October 2021 for €70,000 and was in New York, had already been repatriated.
In January 2022, the painting ‘Piaski’ by artist Frank Stella, which had been illegally sold in March 2021 for around €110,000, was repatriated from Belgium.
In Portugal, in 2021, other works had already been recovered, such as the paintings ‘Seraglio II’ (Julião Sarmento), ‘Dias Quase Tranquilos’ (Helena Almeida), ‘Lag-72’ (Frank Nitsche) and ‘Quadro sem título’ (Pedro Calapez).
Other assets belonging directly or indirectly to João Rendeiro and his wife were also seized, such as an apartment (€1.15 million), a high-powered vehicle (€50,000), and bank balances in Portugal and abroad worth €514,000.
At the end of last year, the PJ stated in a press release that "assets and valuables worth around €70 million" had already been seized in connection with this case.
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