A Fight Over Art Masters Involves Billions
The joy must have been palpable in 2013 when three New York art traders arranged through Sotheby’s to sell a newly discovered painting by Leonardo da Vinci, the Renaissance master, for $ 80 million. One of them had purchased it for less than $10,000 eight years earlier, when most experts viewed it as only the work of Leonardo’s school.
But the traders’ joy soured when they learned that the man who bought it, a Swiss art dealer, had turned around and sold the painting within days to a Russian billionaire for $ 47.5 million more. Hadn’t Sotheby’s taken the painting, presale, to an apartment where the Russian billionaire had viewed it? Were the traders misled to favor the Swiss dealer, a valued Sotheby’s client named Yves Bouvier? The traders have told Sotheby’s they plan to sue, claiming fraud, to recover the millions they say they missed out on, according to court papers.
The papers were filed in federal court in Manhattan last month by Sotheby’s in a pre- emptive move to block such a suit. Sotheby’s says in the filing that it never knew Mr. Bouvier had the Russian billionaire waiting to pay much more for the work, a depiction of Christ known as “Salvator Mundi.” The price reached, Sotheby’s said, was “likely a world record price for an old master painting” at the time. The traders, Sotheby’s lawyer wrote, “are trying to gain the benefit of a subsequent sale price that Sotheby’s had nothing to do with.”
The dispute offers a view of the messy side of the international art market. But it is only part of a much larger battle between Mr. Bouvier and the Russian billionaire, Dmitry Rybolovlev, a battle in which Sotheby’s is now entangled.
Mr. Rybolovlev has accused Mr. Bouvier of defrauding him in the purchase of 38 paintings for which companies controlled by Mr. Rybolovlev’s family trust paid nearly $2 billion. The Russian has said he thought Mr. Bouvier was acting as his agent, on commission, in such sales, but instead he said he later found that Mr. Bouvier had skimmed as much as $1 billion in profits by buying the paintings himself first, then selling them to his Russian client at escalated prices, according to court papers. Mr. Rybolovlev leveled criminal charges against Mr. Bouvier in Monaco, where he was arrested last year.
Twelve of the 38 paintings were originally bought by Mr. Bouvier in sales arranged by Sotheby’s, only to be flipped to Mr. Rybolovlev. Sotheby’s said that it was unaware of Mr. Bouvier’s intentions. In a statement, Sotheby’s said that it had hired an outside law firm to investigate its behavior and that it found no wrongdoing.
Mr. Rybolovlev’s advisers have expressed concern about a set of valuations that Sotheby’s prepared for Mr. Bouvier. One was prepared last year after Mr. Rybolovlev learned he had paid $ 47.5 million more for his Leonardo than the prior purchaser. Sotheby’s, which 20 months before had brokered the sale of the painting for $80 million, provided an insurance appraisal that valued it at about $113 million.
A spokesman for Mr. Rybolovlev, Sergey Chernitsyn, said, “Tracing back Mr. Bouvier’s steps has thrown up some questions about the private sale process conducted by Sothe- by’s, and the subsequent role that the organization may have played.”
Mr. Bouvier, who is free on a 10-million euro bond, said he had a right to charge whatever price a buyer would pay.
A spokesman for him said that Sotheby’s knew nothing about his relationship with Mr. Rybolovlev.
Sotheby’s revealed in court filings that it had earned $ 3 million for arranging the sale of the Leonardo. Much of the speculation about Sotheby’s revolves around what its representative knew when he took the “Salvator Mundi” to be inspected by Mr. Bouvier and Mr. Rybolovlev. The meeting occurred six weeks before the sale to Mr. Bouvier, in a Manhattan apartment owned by a Rybolovlev family trust. Sotheby’s argues that Samuel Valette, its vice chairman for private sales worldwide, did not realize Mr. Rybolovlev was inspecting the painting as a potential buyer.
The meeting had been requested by Mr. Bouvier, the auction house said, and though Mr. Valette said that he recognized a third man in the room as having been associated with a previous sale to Mr. Bouvier, he said that he had not known his name.
“The picture painted by Sotheby’s in its complaint is incomplete, and brushes aside many of the events surrounding the sale of the da Vinci,” said Thomas C. Danziger, a lawyer for the original sellers of the Leonardo. “We look forward to presenting our case in court.”