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Fakes, fraud, dubious ownership and the Russian billionaire: legal disputes involving art are on the rise

Disputes over art are nothing new; in fact they have been in existence as long as art itself but a flood of recent press coverage would suggest they are on the rise.

The disputes are also becoming increasingly complex which means they are increasingly difficult to resolve.  They are often international disputes with owners, dealers and other players like auctioneers and galleries all situated in different countries and, therefore, different legal jurisdictions.

The following are some of the highest profile disputes from the last few years, a list of examples that illustrates perfectly the very different forms disputes over art can take:

There has been a long-running dispute over who owns Henri Matisse’s 1908 masterpiece Greta Moll between Moll’s grandchildren and the National Gallery in London.  In fact the ownership and selling of art after one of the 3 Ds (a death, divorce or finding yourself in debt) is probably the leading cause of art disputes.

In 2011 New York’s Knoedler gallery, one of the oldest in the US, was forced to close after the FBI were called in to investigate more than 20 claims that fake paintings by (or rather not by) artists like Robert Motherwell, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko had been sold to them by art dealer Glafira Rosales who had commissioned art forger Pei-Shen Quian to paint them in his garage in Queens.

In Finland gallery owners Kati Marjatta Karkkiainen and Reijo Pollari were found guilty of aggravated fraud and jailed for 4 and 5 years respectively and ordered to pay €13 million for selling hundreds of counterfeit artworks over a 5 year period.

When it was discovered the painting by Parmigianino he’d sold to auction house Sotheby’s was actually a modern forgery, Lionel Saint Donnat de Pourrières was ordered him to pay Sotheby’s over $1.2 million (the amount the auctioneers had to refund their buyer after the scam was uncovered plus interest and the cost of the forensic inspection and legal fees) in compensation.

The Kremlin Museum in Rostov, Russia had always claimed one of their paintings ‘Samovar’ by Kasimir Malevich – had been stolen from them late ‘50s or early ‘60s.  However, earlier this year the museum realised their version of the painting was a fake as the real painting is currently on show at Centre Pompidou as part of their Cubism exhibition.

Only this week our attention was caught by a story in The Guardian.  Police in Monaco have detained the AS Monaco owner, Russian tycoon Dmitry Rybolovlev, to question him about trying to influence law enforcement officials in his long-running dispute with Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier.

Rybolovlev has accused Bouvier of cheating him out of $1bn by overcharging him on 38 pieces of art and is suing him in Monaco, Singapore and Switzerland whilst also suing Sotheby’s for $380m for - allegedly - helping Bouvier with his fraud. Bouvier has denied all wrongdoing and Sotheby’s has described the allegation as “desperate” and without merit.

However not all disputes involve fakes, scams or frauds.  After a lot of deliberation the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston has officially settled a dispute over a painting – The Kitchen Maid - they had originally labelled ‘in the style of Diego Velázquez’ confirming it is in fact an authentic work by Snr Velázquez.  This dispute was settled after experts stripped away layers of wax, resin, and repainting to perform numerous studies on the painting.

Contact our expert Art Litigation team in London today

Art litigation is a complex area of the law.  Our solicitors have a long and successful history of resolving disputes over ownership, authenticity and provenance, misattributed artwork, art fraud, art money laundering, loss of sale and associated losses and auctioneers’ liability so if you’d like to discuss an dispute or fraud involving a work of art, please call us today on 020 7792 5649 or email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

 

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