Sotheby’s was cleared of allegations made by Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev by a New York federal jury on Tuesday. Rybolovlev had accused the auction house of defrauding him via art sales worth tens of millions of dollars.
Rybolovlev alleged that Sotheby’s and Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier had conspired to trick him into paying inflated prices for four artworks. One of the works was Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi (c. 1499–1510), a depiction of Jesus Christ that became the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction when it fetched $450.3 million in 2017.
Sotheby’s maintained throughout the trial that it had “strictly adhered to all legal requirements, financial obligations, and industry best practices during the transactions of these artworks,” according to the Guardian. The auction house also claimed that it had no knowledge of Bouvier’s alleged exchanges with Rybolovlev, and was not liable for their dealings. Bouvier was not a defendant in this case and maintained that he had done nothing wrong.
Rybolovlev initially sued Sotheby’s over 15 artworks bought from the auction house that totaled more than $1 billion, alleging that Bouvier had charged millions of dollars in hidden markups. However, U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman dismissed the fraud-based claims on 11 of the works, including pieces from artists such as Pablo Picasso, Auguste Rodin, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Furman allowed Rybolovlev to pursue fraud-based claims for René Magritte’s Domaine d’Arnheim (1962), Gustav Klimt’s Water Serpents II (1904–07), Amedeo Modigliani’s sculpture Tête (1910–12), and Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi.
After a five-hour deliberation, the 10-person jury sided with the auction house, which said it was unaware of any schemes involving Bouvier.
According to Forbes, Rybolovlev built his fortune in the potash fertilizer industry and is a majority owner of the AS Monaco soccer team. A lawyer for Rybolovlev, Daniel Kornstein, said that the case “achieved our goal of shining a light on the lack of transparency that plagues the art market.” He added: “That secrecy made it difficult to prove a complex aiding and abetting fraud case.”
In a statement to CNN, Sotheby’s said that the verdict reaffirms its “commitment to upholding the highest standards of integrity, ethics and professionalism,” and reflects a “glaring lack of evidence” that it had cheated Rybolovlev.
