Billionaire’s secret lovechild with Sotheby’s art expert The
While so- called modern ‘masterpieces’ are changing hands for millions at this week’s Frieze art fair, london’s arty types are currently gripped by an altogether different sort of scandal.
it concerns Sotheby’s art expert Severine Nackers, who recently took leave of her job at the auction house’s london offices to give birth to a daughter. Although glamorous, Belgian- born Severine — who is Sotheby’s head of prints in europe — is unmarried, it has emerged that the father of her child is one of the art world’s biggest hitters.
he is Canadian-born David Thomson, aka lordd Thomson of Fleet, 58-year- old heir to thee Thomson Reuters media empire who, with a fortune estimated at £18 billion, is one of the world’s richest men.
i am told Thomson, who resides mainly in Toronto and boasts one of the world’s finest art collections, met Nackers several years ago through his regular dealings with Sotheby’s.
pair struck up a relationship at the end of last year which, until now, they managed to keep under wraps. The arrival of baby Ottilie in August means that Thomson now boasts an impressive five children from four different women.
he was engaged briefly to the hollywood actress Kelly Rowan, star of U.S. series The OC, with whom he has a young daughter, as well as three other children from his two marriages.
he also once enjoyed a romance with Picasso’s granddaughter Diana Widmaier- Picasso, who recently jokingly described her ex’s chaotic private life as ‘very busy’.
Meanwhile, i am told executives at Sotheby’s have been put under strict orders not to discuss the relationship between Nackers and one of their most lucrative clients.
Thomson — whose family once
owned The Times newspaper — has enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship with the prestigious auction house. In 2002, he paid a (then) record £49 million for a Rubens at one of its auctions in london; and in 2013, used sotheby’s to sell a number of his British paintings by artists such as Patrick Heron, Roger Hilton and William scott.
although the £2 million sale did not feature the best examples from his collection, one impressed dealer remarked at the time: ‘Thomson’s 2nd XI is better than most people’s 1st XI.’