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Former Banco Santos president Edemar Cid Ferreira once covered the walls of his São Paulo home with Man Ray photographs, Louise Bourgeois prints and paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Francis Picabia and others. But when Brazilian authorities arrested Mr. Ferreira in 2006 for an alleged $1 billion money-laundering scheme, the walls were bare.

The vanished collection set off a global scavenger hunt, with investigators and creditors chasing leads long after Mr. Ferreira was convicted of money-laundering and sentenced in federal…