"The Painter and the Model" that was hidden in an attic of a building on the outskirts of Sao Paulo. Photo: EFE

SAO PAULO.- Brazilian police have recovered one of the two stolen prints of famous Spanish painter Pablo Picasso and arrested a suspect.

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

Over a month ago thieves went into the Estacao Pinacoteca in Sao Paulo and stole four paintings during the day. The thieves stole engravings by Pablo picasso titled "Minotaur, Drinking Fountain and Women" and "The Artist and His Model". Two brazilian paintings Women At The Window (1926) by Emiliano Augusto Cavalcanti de Albuquerque Melo, known better as Di Cavalcanti, and Couple (1919) by Lasar Segall, were also stolen.

The artworks, belonging to the Jose and Paulina Nemirovsky Foundation and worth in total about 1 million reais ($613,000), were on display in the Pinacoteca Station annex of the museum.

On that day, three robbers bearing guns took the paintings around noon local time, said Ana Catarina Flaquer, a spokeswoman for the Sao Paulo state police department.

Police delegates Gaetano Del Vegine, Youssef Abul Chaina and Secretary of Culture João Saad held a news conference where they presented the sketches police made of the thieves who stole the four paintings.

A second Picasso and works by Lasar Segall and Emiliano Di Cavalcanti remain missing, a police spokesman said. A second suspect has been identified and is being sought.