Art dealers win fight for £7m Gauguin sale fee

Two art dealers have secured a £7million commission from the sale of a Gauguin masterpiece bought by the Qatari royal family after suing a former friend in a High Court battle.

Simon and Michaela de Pury, who run Pury and de Pury LLP, said they were owed the sum after securing the sale of Nafea faa ipoipo – translated as When Will You Marry? – a study of two Tahitian women painted by Paul Gauguin in 1892.

Mr de Pury, a former Sotheby’s executive and art collector, said he had negotiated the fee for his services with his “old friend” Ruedi Staechelin, one of three trustees the painting belonged to.