Sabine Boghici, Art Collector Heiress, Used Fake Psychics to Scam Mom Out of Millions, Say Police

The daughter of a wealthy Brazilian art collector used fake fortune tellers to convince her mother that the family’s heirloom paintings were possessed and needed to be taken out of the house as part of a ritual. elaborate plan to defraud family assets, according to a Brazilian police report.

Former model Sabine Boghici, 48, was arrested Wednesday in Rio de Janeiro for stealing $140 million in fine art and jewelry and an undisclosed amount of cash from her mother, Geneviève Boghici, widow of the late Romanian art dealer Jean Boghici, who established a multi-million dollar business in Brazil. She was also charged with embezzlement, extortion and false imprisonment.

At some point during her late adolescence, Sabine is said to have become obsessed with dogs and raise dozens of them in the family home. She tried to urge her mother to buy her an apartment just for animals, according to Brazilian news reports. When she refused, she allegedly set out to avenge her mother, which resulted in her having to undo.

Police chief Gilberto Ribeiro told Reuters that the daughter started stealing works in 2020. At the time, Brazilian media reported that she used the COVID-19 pandemic as a reason to fire employees. The housekeeper has taken care of her mother since she was a baby. father’s death. When her mother resisted, sometimes she threatened to put a knife to her neck, the child’s mother reported to the police.

Authorities said the girl also detained her mother and tried to starve her before the mother urged a friend to change the locks on one of the family’s lavish apartments to prevent Sabine from going out.

Police said that before taking her mother into custody, Sabine persuaded friends posing as psychiatrists, who are believed to have accused her mother outside a bank, to tell her that her daughter was bad. Some tried to imprison her because the devil in the family’s artwork possessed her. “Psychologists” later visited the house, claiming that the paintings were “cursed with something negative, with negative energy that needs to be prayed for,” said Ribeiro. They then extorted the widow thousands of dollars, who paid to “clean” the paintings in an attempt to save her unruly daughter.

“They took 16 paintings, including works by famous Brazilian artists, according to the Brazilian news agency Metropolis, among them three paintings by modernist artist Tarsila do Amaral worth $137.69 million, this official said.

The family made headlines in 2012 when a fire started when the air conditioner in Sabine’s bedroom shorted through the family’s Rio apartment, destroying several valuable structures. treated and killed two of the family’s 16 cats, according to UOL News Brazil.

Previously, Sabine Boghici modeled for The One Agency, which led to several highly publicized images of her — many around her father’s art collection.

The first heir’s two accomplices have also been arrested for complicity.