The heirs of the Bic family fortune filed suit in March for the return of a painting by Fra Angelico that sold at Christie’s for $5.4 million in 2018. That sale was only possible, the heirs allege, because a chauffeur for the family had stolen the work, then sold it to a prominent art dealer who then consigned it to the auction house.
There is no publicly listed record for the painting on the website for Christie’s, which is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit, potentially indicating that the piece may have been sold privately. Instead, the defendants are the executors of the estate of dealer Richard L. Feigen, who allegedly consigned the painting before his death, as well as Chilean billionaire Álvaro Saieh and his wife Ana Guzman, whom the suit claims bought the work at Christie’s.
The suit was filed on March 19 in the Supreme Court for the State of New York. According to the suit, the painting, titled Saint Sixtus (ca. 1453–55), was purchased by Bic founder Baron Marcel Bich in 1972. After he died, the painting then went to his son Bruno, who hung it in his New York apartment.
Roy Morrow, the family’s chauffeur, “stole” the painting, the suit claims. “Bruno did not know the Work had been stolen,” the suit alleges. “He only knew that the Work had disappeared. For years, he repeatedly asked Veronique, his wife, where the Work had gone; each time, she evaded his questions or provided inconsistent explanations. Bruno never learned the details of Morrow’s theft before passing away.”
The suit claims that Feigen, a well-known dealer of Old Masters paintings who died in 2021, agreed to sell the work, adding that Morrow allegedly failed to provide sufficient documentation. Feigen did so because he was “willfully blinded by dollar signs,” the suit says. Morrow allegedly sold the work for $3 million, a “fire-sale price,” according to the suit.
The Bic heirs say they “discovered” that the work was owned by Saieh and Guzman in 2023, though the suit does not state how they arrived at such a realization. The suit refers to a 2024 investigation into the whereabouts of the painting, but that inquiry is also not detailed in the complaint.
The New York Police Department told Gothamist that no one reported the painting as stolen.
According to the suit, in 2024, the heirs “demanded that Saieh and Guzman return the Work. They refused to return the Work and have therefore intentionally exercised dominion and control over the Work in denial of and inconsistent with Plaintiffs’ rights.”
ARTnews was unable to reach a representative for Saieh, who owns more than 100 works dating to between the 13th and 16th centuries, according to a 2022 Art Newspaper profile. In that profile, Saieh mentioned owning a work by Fra Angelico.
“We acquired the artwork from Christie’s in 2018, relying on the studies made by one of the world’s leading auction houses,” Andrés Winter Salgado, general counsel for CorpGroup, the company run by Saieh, said in a statement to Gothamist. “We will take all necessary steps to vigorously protect our rights and will respond through the appropriate legal channels.”
ARTnews has also reached out to collector Michael Steinhardt, who is listed as a defendant in his alleged capacity as an executor of Feigen’s estate, for comment.
In a statement to Bloomberg, Luke Nikas, a lawyer for the Bic heirs, said, “Saieh possesses stolen artwork, and Feigen’s estate possesses funds Feigen wasn’t entitled to receive. They should do the right thing and turn over the painting and the funds to their rightful owners.”
