CHAMPION OF BRAZILIAN ART SENTENCED TO PRISON

Edemar Cid Ferreira, a former president of the São Paulo Biennial and founder of the nonprofit organization BrasilConnects, has been sentenced by a Brazilian court to twenty-one years in prison for bank fraud and money laundering, reports Charmaine Picard in the Art Newspaper. The sentence is associated with his role as the head of the failed Banco Santos, which left behind one billion dollars in debts. The sixty-three-year-old former banker was taken into custody in São Paulo on December 12, following his sentencing by the Federal High Court of Justice, and was released sixteen days later pending an appeal. As the founder of BrasilConnects, Cid Ferreira was responsible for overseeing the organization of blockbuster exhibitions in several museums around the world, including shows in 2001 at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the British Museum in London, and the Jeu de Paume in Paris.