By Sarah Morland
MEXICO CITY, July 8 (Reuters) – Mexican authorities on Wednesday arrested a man suspected of stealing bronze sculptures, including artwork by famed surrealist Leonora Carrington, from the courtyard of a church in an historic district of the capital.
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Mexico City’s public safety secretariat SSC said in a statement the 26-year-old man, whose clothing and physical traits matched those of the thief caught on surveillance video, was also suspected of marijuana possession. Potential charges had yet to be determined.
Father Jose de Jesus Aguilar first drew attention to the thefts on social media, posting videos of the artwork missing from San Cosme church’s picturesque courtyard sculpture garden.
Surveillance video shared by the priest shows a figure in a pale hoodie climbing onto a low wall and leaning over the shrubbery towards one of the statues then wresting it off its plinth by swinging it back and forth.
The stolen artifacts include Carrington’s “Black Dog,” a mystical guardian crafted using an ancient metal-casting technique; a bronze statue by sculptor Cesar Ruiz Cureño inspired by Remedios Varo’s surrealist painting “Woman Leaving the Psychoanalyst;” and an untitled sculpture of a winged angel embracing a child.
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Lancashire-born Carrington and Spanish painter Varo were neighbors and close friends who met in Paris then moved to Mexico City during World War Two.
Local media estimated the stolen artwork may be worth 150,000 to 200,000 Mexican pesos ($8,500 to $11,400). The SSC statement did not say whether the sculptures had been recovered.
The priest said in a video on X that costly plaques were also stolen and the thief — who broke a padlock on the gate to carry the statues out — would likely have intended to sell them for the material.
“We will keep ensuring that the parish of San Cosme is a place of faith but also of art,” Aguilar said.
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($1 = 17.5719 Mexican pesos)
(Reporting by Sarah Morland; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Copyright 2026 Thomson Reuters.
