Oligarch forced to part with rare da Vinci
BRITAIN: It was once owned by King Charles I of England, is one of about 20 paintings by Leonardo da Vinci to have survived, is the last one in private hands, and is being sold by a man facing a murky art battle, after already having had to settle a hefty divorce bill.
is being auctioned by Christie’s as businessman Dmitry Rybolovlev continues to dismantle what was, for a short period, one of the most expensive private art collections ever assembled. Depicting Jesus as the saviour of the world, the piece has been hailed as the ‘‘holy grail of Old Master paintings’’.
Rybolovlev, a Russian-born potash oligarch, acquired it during a billion-dollar buying spree over the past decade. In 2014 he and Elena Rybolovleva, his wife of 27 years, divorced and he was ordered to pay her US$4.5 billion. That amount was reduced to US$605 million before the pair reached an undisclosed settlement in 2015.
Also weighing on Rybolovlev’s mind was a dispute with Yves Bouvier, the art dealer who helped him to procure his enviable collection. Rybolovlev alleges that Bouvier made him pay too much as he assembled 40 of the world’s most sought-after works for about US$2b. Bouvier denies the allegation.
Rybolovlev is said to have bought through Bouvier in 2013 for US$127.5m, after it was sold through Sotheby’s in New York for less than US$80m.
This year Rybolovlev sold several masterpieces, allegedly for millions of pounds less than he had paid for them in deals conducted through Bouvier. The sale included works by Mark Rothko, Paul Gauguin, Pablo Picasso and Auguste Rodin.
is a painting with a colourful past. Created for King Louis XII of France in the early 16th century, it was recorded in the collection of Charles I in 1649, the year of his execution. It surfaced again in a 1763 sale before disappearing for almost two centuries.
In 1958 it briefly re-emerged and was sold for £45 because nobody knew it had been painted by one of the greats.
Five decades later it emerged again. This time, the experts were alerted. After six years of inquiry and research, it was unveiled at the National Gallery in London in 2011 as an authenticated da Vinci. Rybolovlev bought it two years later.