Netflix’s series “Dom de Iludir” shares key elements with a real art crime uncovered in Rio de Janeiro in 2022, although the streaming platform has not identified the case in its promotional materials. The real-life scandal involved collector Geneviève Boghici, who was persuaded by a fake fortune-teller to part with valuable paintings while being held captive by her daughter. Prosecutors put the losses at R$725 million, including stolen artworks and jewelry.
Police said the fortune-teller claimed that Boghici’s daughter was ill and would die soon, then offered spiritual treatment in exchange for money. Because her daughter had experienced psychological problems since adolescence, Boghici made the requested payments, according to the account of the investigation.
The series changes the characters’ names: Marieta Severo plays Lúcia Rossetti, based on Geneviève Boghici, while Alice Wegmann portrays Maíra, inspired by her daughter, Sabine. The fortune-teller Rosa Stanesco becomes Irina, a healer played by Nanda Costta. In both the real case and the drama, the fortune-teller is part of a criminal group.
The show was filmed in a four-storey, 3,900-square-metre apartment in Rio’s Flamengo neighbourhood, with views of Sugarloaf Mountain. The property once belonged to the Guinle family and was listed for R$59 million three years ago. Real-estate listings now value it at between R$50 million and R$54 million. In reality, Geneviève and her daughter lived in a luxury duplex on Avenida Atlântica in Copacabana, where Geneviève was reportedly held captive and part of her art collection was kept.
The collection was assembled with her husband, Jean Boghici, an art dealer who died in 2015 and is portrayed in the series by Jonas Bloch. The show features a reproduction of Candido Portinari’s “Woman with Dead Child,” which the fictional story presents as the source of the daughter’s seizures and blackouts. The real oil painting, from the 1950s, was a preparatory study for a mural Portinari made for the United Nations headquarters in New York, and it was shown at the third São Paulo Biennial, according to the Projeto Portinari catalogue. In the real case, the fortune-teller also told Geneviève that her artworks were cursed.
Netflix said the series also includes reproductions authorised by the artists’ heirs: two works by Victor Brecheret and four by Emiliano Di Cavalcanti. Di Cavalcanti’s 1925 painting “Samba” features in the drama; the original was destroyed in a fire that damaged part of Jean Boghici’s collection. The production consulted a gallery owner and auctioneer with decades of experience in the art market.
In real life, Sabine married Rosa Stanesco and the couple adopted a child. Both women were arrested, but Sabine was later released on habeas corpus. She died after falling from a building in Leblon in what was reportedly a suicide. In the series, however, the daughter’s character does not die.
Sources: Folha Ilustrada.