A judge has ordered Yves Bouvier to face trial in a Paris criminal court over the alleged disappearance of dozens of works by Picasso from a storage unit, which the artist’s stepdaughter had rented from Bouvier’s company. The Swiss dealer is accused of concealing stolen goods and laundering. His friend and business partner, Olivier Thomas, faces charges of breach of trust, embezzlement and laundering.
Bouvier launched an appeal against the process, which was denied in November 2024, allowing the investigation to continue. The judge in charge of the investigation confirmed on 15 January 2026 that there is sufficient grounds for Bouvier to go to trial. A trial date has yet to be fixed.
The investigation was triggered in 2015 following a complaint from Catherine Hutin, the daughter of Picasso’s last partner Jacqueline Roque, after she discovered that works were missing from the unit she had rented from Bouvier’s company, in a Paris suburb. Eight years before, she had asked Olivier Thomas, an art dealer and mutual friend of hers and Bouvier’s, to sell Picasso’s last residence on the Riviera, the Mas Notre-Dame-de-Vie in Mougins, and move the furniture to the storage unit.
While the investigation was underway, Hutin reported further disappearances, raising the total of missing works to almost 70. Some were found in photographs on Olivier Thomas’ camera. Notably, two portraits of her mother and 60 drawings from sketchbooks were discovered to have been sold by Bouvier to Dmitri Rybolovlev, for a total of €36m. The Russian collector filed a complaint but withdrew from the procedure after his 2023 settlement with Bouvier, relating to a broader nine-year legal feud.
Bouvier claimed that the Picasso works had come from the late Parisian dealer Jean-François Aittouares. But the investigating judge found “there is not a single element establishing his involvement”. Bouvier tells The Art Newspaper that “it was a verbal agreement”, explaining that he paid Hutin $8m for the works under investigation, through a Lichtenstein trust. But, according to the ruling, this “payment in fact corresponded to a previous sale of 11 paintings”, in 2010, which is not disputed. “However, Mr Bouvier has produced no evidence or paperwork on the purchase of the works” having disappeared from the storage, concluded the judge.
Bouvier tells The Art Newspaper a trial is “completely unjustified and baseless”. “The case is ludicrous. Ms Hutin was paid for the works sold by Mr Bouvier”, says his attorney, Philippe Valent, who spoke of a “collusion” against his client. Olivier Thomas claims he has “nothing to do” with Bouvier’s sales.
Anne-Sophie Nardon, Hutin’s lawyer, says they are “relieved by a ruling confirming all their suspicions, after a decade-long process”, and now hope that the “truth will be established in court”.
