JAKARTA – Malaysia again showed off the expensive traces of the 1MDB scandal. This time it’s not a yacht or a luxury home, but four works of art, including paintings by Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró, which are said to have been bought with money from state funds that were embezzled.
Quoting The Independent, Friday, May 8, the works were repatriated from New York on April 14 and were exhibited at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission or MACC office in Putrajaya.
The 1MDB scandal began with Malaysian state investment funds established in 2009 by Prime Minister Najib Razak. According to the US Department of Justice, more than 4.5 billion US dollars was embezzled from the fund in 2009-2014.
The money allegedly flowed into many luxury goods: houses, jewelry, yachts, private jets, works of art, to financing the film The Wolf of Wall Street.
The four works restored are Composition by Joan Miró, Maison de rendez-vous de chasse de Henri IV, rue Saint-Vincent, Montmartre by Maurice Utrillo, Étude pour femme couchée by Balthus, and L’Ecuyère et les clowns by Picasso.
The combined value is estimated at around 198,125 US dollars. This value is part of Malaysia’s efforts to recover assets allegedly purchased with 1MDB funds.
MACC Commissioner Azam Baki said the works were tracked through Sotheby’s and Christie’s auction houses in New York. Asset recovery was carried out with the help of the FBI and the US Department of Justice.
“These works of art are not only commercially valuable, but also a symbol of the history of the country’s biggest corruption scandal,” Azam said, quoted by The Independent.
He called the scandal a betrayal of the people’s money. According to Azam, whatever the value, every penny belonging to the people must be returned.
The paintings arrived in Malaysia in wooden crates. The opening was carried out with controlled light and temperature arrangements under the supervision of the National Art Gallery.
Azam said the work would be moved to the National Art Gallery and could later be exhibited for the public. The goal is for the public to remember the history of the 1MDB scandal.
Najib denies wrongdoing. However, he has been in prison since 2022 after losing an appeal in a corruption case related to a former 1MDB subsidiary. In December, a Malaysian court sentenced him to an additional 15 years in prison in another case related to 1MDB. He appealed.
US prosecutors named fugitive Jho Low as one of the main architects of the 1MDB fraud. Malaysian authorities said the recovered artwork was bought by former 1MDB lawyer Jasmine Loo Ai Swan.
These four works are only part of the art assets that Malaysia is hunting for. Authorities are still trying to recover eight other works, including works by Henri Matisse, Salvador Dalí, Alexander Calder, and another Picasso.
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