Two paintings held in the bankruptcy of a Brazilian financier are being returned to Brasil tomorrow according to this announcement sent out today:

On Tuesday, September 21, 2010 the New York District Attorney Preet Bharara will return two works of art to Brazil’s National Secretary of Justice Pedro Abramovay in a ceremony at the U.S Attorney’s Office in New York attended by Brazilian and U.S. authorities.  The two pieces – paintings by Roy Lichtenstein and Joaquin Torres Garcia – were once part of the collection of former Banco Santos CEO Edemar Cid Ferreira, and were restrained by the Brazilian justice after the bankruptcy of Banco Santos in 2005.  After Edemar’s conviction for the crimes of mismanagement, money laundering and conspiracy, the paintings were seized by the U.S. government as a result of an international legal cooperation made by Brazilian authorities.