A Russian oligarch will this week accuse Sotheby’s of helping an art dealer to trick him into overpaying for art masterpieces including Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, which went on to become the most expensive artwork ever sold.
Dmitry Rybolovlev, ranked as the world’s 180th richest person with an estimated £9bn ($11.4bn) fortune, is suing Sotheby’s in New York, where the London-founded 280-year-old auction house is now headquartered.
He claims Sotheby’s inflated the estimated value of artworks he had expressed interest in buying, including pieces by Gustav Klimt, Amedeo Modigliani and René Magritte.
The 57-year-old, who made his wealth selling Russian producers of potash fertiliser and paid Donald Trump $95m for his Florida beachfront mansion in 2008, spent about $2bn on a huge “world-class art collection” including pieces by Leonardo, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Henri Matisse between 2002 and 2014.
However, according to the New York judge overseeing the case, Rybolovlev and his advisers later “discovered that Yves Bouvier, an art broker who assisted in acquiring the works, had cheated them by buying the works himself for one price and charging them another price – millions or tens of millions of dollars higher”.
Rybolovlev launched legal action against Bouvier in Monaco, Singapore, New York, Hong Kong and Switzerland, accusing the art adviser of misleading him over the value of 38 artworks to the tune of €1bn. Bouvier denied the claims, and last month the pair reached a confidential settlement concerning all their disputes that involved proceedings in various jurisdictions.
Bouvier’s lawyers, David Bitton and Yves Klein of Monfrini Bitton Klein said: “The final outstanding investigation into Yves Bouvier’s business dealings with Dmitry Rybolovlev started in Switzerland in 2017 and was closed on 6 December 2023 by the Office of the Attorney General of Geneva. The Geneva Public Prosecutor’s Office stated that it conducted a number of hearings which did not provide any evidence to raise sufficient suspicion against Mr Bouvier.”
Rybolovlev, who owns Ligue 1 football club AS Monaco and the Greek island of Skorpios where Jacqueline Kennedy married Aristotle Onassis in 1968, is now suing Sotheby’s alleging the auction house “aided and abetted Bouvier in committing fraud and breaching his fiduciary duties”. Sotheby’s denies the claims.
However, US district court judge Jesse Furman ruled in March 2023 that Sotheby’s must face fraud-related claims on sales of four works: Salvador Mundi, the Modigliani sculpture Tête, Klimt’s Wasserschlangen II and Magritte’s Le Domaine d’Arnheim.
The case is due to begin in Manhattan federal court on Monday. A spokesperson for Sotheby’s said: “Sotheby’s strictly adhered to all legal requirements, financial obligations, and industry best practices during the transactions of these artworks. Any suggestion that Sotheby’s was aware of the buyer’s alleged misconduct or intention to defraud Mr Rybolovlev is false.” Bouvier is not a party to the litigation.
Rybolovlev sold Salvator Mundi for $450m at a Christie’s auction in 2017, making it the most expensive painting ever sold. It was bought by Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, and had been planned to become the star attraction in a new Louvre gallery in Abu Dhabi. However, it has not gone on show as experts raised questions about its authenticity.
Rybolovlev’s lawyer, Daniel Kornstein, a partner at Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel, said: “The client is looking forward to the trial. For the first time, all the evidence will be presented. For the first time in nine years, Mr Rybolovlev will speak publicly and provide a detailed account of the truth about this case.”
• This article was amended on 11 January 2024 to include a statement from lawyers for Yves Bouvier and to clarify that the settlement reached between him and Dmitry Rybolovlev related to all their disputes in various jurisdictions.
