Federal Police operation investigates suspected attempt to steal rare works from Rio's Royal Portuguese Reading Room

Summary written by the Panorama newsroom from the sources listed below. Facts are attributed to the original publications.

Brazil's Federal Police launched Operation Página Oculta (Hidden Page) on Tuesday (10), targeting the receiving, concealment and illegal sale of rare books, religious images and other items of the country's cultural heritage, g1 reported. According to investigators, the Royal Portuguese Reading Room, a historic library in downtown Rio de Janeiro, was the target of a criminal group.

The suspicion is of attempted theft: the Federal Police says it gathered evidence that the group tried to recruit an employee of the institution to get to the works. As of g1's latest update, there was no confirmation that any item had left the building. According to the police, the possible recipients of the pieces have already been identified.

In all, five search and seizure warrants, authorized by the 5th Federal Criminal Court of Rio, are being served at residential and commercial properties in the city of Rio de Janeiro, in São Paulo and in Diadema (São Paulo state). Officers are seeking to recover any works and to collect evidence such as purchase and sale records, payment receipts, cell phones and computers, which will undergo forensic analysis.

The new action stems from Operation Trinca de Papel, which investigated a group dedicated to diverting rare books and cultural property from public and private collections. Those targeted may be charged with aggravated receiving of stolen goods, criminal association and attempted aggravated theft committed by multiple people.

Opened in 1887 on the initiative of 43 Portuguese immigrants living in Rio, the Royal Reading Room holds the largest and most valuable collection of Portuguese authors outside Europe, with 350,000 digitally catalogued volumes. In 2025, the website 1000 Libraries ranked it the 8th most beautiful library in the world.