At trial, a Russian billionaire blames Sotheby's for losing millions on art by Picasso, da Vinci
Sotheby's attorney
Shudofsky said the fertilizer magnate, a savvy businessman who has run highly successful businesses, had “good reason to be angry with himself” after spending hundreds of millions of dollars to buy art masterpieces without taking “the most basic steps” to protect himself from a broker who cheated him.
“Sotheby's didn't know anything about those lies,” the attorney said. “Sotheby’s had no knowledge of and didn’t participate in any misconduct.”
She spoke after Rybolovlev's lawyer,
“As a result of participating in the fraud, Sotheby's made a lot of money,” Kornstein said. “Sotheby's had choices, but they chose greed.”
The trial is likely to provide a window into how high-stakes transactions involving art enthusiasts worldwide develop and their importance to the operations of auction houses that rely heavily on their reputations as they match up some of the world’s wealthiest investors.
Rybolovlev, 57, who bought a
In one order last March, Judge
The case stems from
To carry out the purchases for Rybolovlev's home in
Before long, Bouvier became such a trusted friend of the billionaire that he attended small birthday parties for Rybolovlev and his daughter and joined him at soccer matches, the lawyer said.
“Bouvier turned out to be a con man” who bought works of art from Sotheby's and sometimes nearly doubled the price before he resold the art to Rybolovlev, Kornstein said.
“If you’re the buyer and operating in darkness, you have no way of learning that unless the auction house knows about it and can help you out,” he said.
In all, Bouvier pocketed
The lawyer told jurors to look at documents including emails that “don't lie” and would prove that auction house executives knew what was happening. He urged them to ignore what he predicted would be “fairy tales” from Sotheby's witnesses.
A message sent to a lawyer for Bouvier to seek comment on the accusations against him and a settlement Bouvier reached with Rybolovlev several weeks ago in a Swiss court was returned with the message that it had been forwarded to Bouvier's representative.
In all, Rybolovlev had accused Bouvier of defrauding him through sales of 38 art pieces, including Picasso's “Homme Assis au Verre” and Rodin's “Le Baiser,” “L’Éternel Printemps” and “Eve,” but the judge last year disqualified from the trial many of the dozen or so works bought in private sales through Sotheby's on various legal grounds.
Among the four works at issue in the trial was de Vinci's “Salvator Mundi,” a depiction of Christ as “Saviour of the World,” which Bouvier bought from Sotheby's for
In 2017, Rybolovlev arranged for
Other artworks that Kornstein said involved improper markups that will be addressed at the trial were a Modigliani sculpture and paintings by
In 2018, Rybolovlev was included on a list that the Trump administration released of 114 Russian politicians and oligarchs it said were linked to Russian President
However, he was not included on a list of Russian oligarchs sanctioned after
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