A jury in the Manhattan federal court in New York ruled in favor of Sotheby's last Tuesday, Jan. 30, at a civil trial in which Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev accused the auction house of helping Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier defraud him out of tens of millions of dollars in art deals.
This ruling marks the end of one of the highest-profile art fraud cases in recent years, which lasted about three weeks, starting in early January after Rybolovlev first sued the auction house.
Behind the Sotheby's vs. Rybolovlev Case
Rybolovlev's accusation against the auction house alleged that it had conspired with Bouvier to "trick" him into paying over-inflated final prices for four masterpieces including Leonardo da Vinci's "Salvator Mundi," which became the most expensive art piece ever sold in 2019, as per CNN.
The privately operated Sotheby's rejected this accusation and maintained that it was not aware that Bouvier possibly deceived the Russian billionaire and thus was not liable for any art dealings that transpired between the two.
Although Bouvier was not a defendant in the recently concluded case, he and Rybolovlev have butt heads in a long-standing dispute that spanned over a decade now.
This kerfuffle spawned numerous lawsuits against the Swiss dealer across multiple jurisdictions, accusing him of swindling Rybolovlev out of a billion dollars by selling the billionaire 38 art pieces at "ridiculously hiked" prices.
One of these 38 artworks in question is the "Salvator Mundi" masterpiece, which Bouvier allegedly bought for $80 million a day before selling it to Rybolovlev for $127.5 million.
The Swiss art dealer denies any allegations of fraud by saying he acted as a dealer and not an art adviser, contrary to Rybolovlev's claims.
According to Art News, this long history of disputes is precisely what Sotheby's attorney Marcus Asner focused on during his closing statement, saying, "We are here in this courthouse in New York City in 2024 because Dmitry Rybolovlev decided to try and make somebody else pay for what happened to him."
Rybolovlev's party, as represented by lead attorney Daniel Kornstein, said they fulfilled their "goal of shining a light on the lack of transparency that plagues the art market" after the internal workings and business practices of Sotheby's private dealings were laid bare during the trial.
"That secrecy made it difficult to prove a complex aiding and abetting fraud case. This verdict only highlights the need for reforms, which must be made outside the courtroom," Kornstein added.
