Bouvier Affair

The Yves Bouvier Affair is the name that art commentators have given to a series of alleged fraud cases that came to prominence in 2015. As a consequence of the widespread media coverage around them and the far reaching consequences of the scandal, it is believed they could lead to the reform of the global art market.

Yves Bouvier

The cases centre around Yves Bouvier, a Swiss art transporter and also pioneer of the Freeport concept, bonded warehouses where high net worth individuals can store expensive fine art and other high value artifacts without having to declare them to authorities.

In 2015, following widespread media coverage of the cases and the role of Freeports in them, authorities in Switzerland took the unprecedented step of cracking down on the facilities by introducing much tighter new rules. Furthermore, UNESCO raised concerns about the role of Freeports in the possible trafficking of artifacts to fund Islamic terrorism, citing particular concerns about the Singapore Freeport, in which Bouvier is a major shareholder.

Background to the Bouvier Affair

Prior to 2015, Bouvier was primarily known in the market as an art transporter and curator through his company, Natural Le Coultre; and as a major shareholder and promoter of the Freeport concept. He was not widely recognised as a dealer himself.

After having first developed Natural Le Coultre and its links to the Geneva Freeport, Bouvier in 2010 inaugurated the first Singapore Freeport, a 30 000 m2 facility near the airport.

However, in 2012 he became embroiled in a legal case involving a Canadian collector called Lorette Shefner. Shefner’s family claim that she was the victim of a complex fraud, whereby she was persuaded to sell a Soutine painting at a price far below market value, only to see the work later sold to the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC for a much higher price.

Separately, de la Béraudière was implicated in the notorious case of Wolfgang Beltracchi, a German forger who was convicted in 2011 of having defrauded a number of collectors, including Daniel Filipacchi, of millions of dollars.

Bouvier’s purported connections to Galerie Jacques de la Béraudière and his ownership of an off-shore entity called Diva Fine Arts led to Bouvier also being connected to the Beltracchi case. He has, however, always denied any connection to Beltracchi and dismissed media coverage as uninformed speculation.

2015 Cases

Despite the ongoing Shefner case, and the links made by the media between Bouvier and the Beltracchi case, Bouvier remained relatively low profile outside of the specialised art world until 2015. In that year, however, two major cases thrust the Bouvier Affair firmly into the spotlight.

The best known of these involves Catherine Hutin-Blay, the step-daughter of Pablo Picasso. In March 2015, Hutin-Blay, the only daughter of Picasso’s second wife Jacqueline, filed a complaint alleging that 58 separate works had been stolen from her. Hutin-Blay alleged that the works were stolen from a store in a suburb of Paris that is run by Art Transit, a Bouvier family company.

However, another collector, Russian businessman Dmitry Rybolovlev later announced that Bouvier had sold him the two Picasso paintings in 2013.

Bouvier denied any involvement in the thefts. In September 2015, Bouvier was formally indicted by the French authorities on charges of theft in relation to the discovery of two of the works by Picasso that Hutin-Blay alleged were stolen from her.

Rybolovlev handed over the paintings to French authorities in 2015.

The Hutin Blay case coincided with a separate case involving allegations made by Rybolovlev. In February 2015, Bouvier was indicted in Monaco on charges of fraud and complicity in money laundering. The charges followed a criminal complaint made by Rybolovlev’s family trust alleging that Bouvier had systematically overcharged it over a period of 10 years to acquire paintings.

Bouvier and co-defendant Tania Rappo, who is accused of money laundering in the fraud, attempted to have charges against them thrown out in November 2015. They argued that there were a number of irregularities in the legal procedure against them and that Rybolovlev, as a prominent citizen in Monaco, may have exercised undue influence.

However, the judge rejected their argument and both are due to face trial in Monaco in 2016. Bouvier also faces a trial in the Hutin-Blay case in France later in 2016.

In late 2015, it also emerged that Bouvier has been investigated by the authorities in Liechtenstein on suspicion of money laundering, in one instance related to a forged Max Ernst work, that is alleged to have been created by Wolfgang Beltracchi. However, Liechtenstein suspended its investigation in December 2015.

Impact of the Bouvier Affair

The Bouvier Affair has been widely reported and followed across the art world and beyond as one of the biggest art stories of 2015. Many art commentators believe that the Affair could be the catalyst for a renewed push to reform the art market.

In 2015, the Swiss government, reeling from the revelations in the media coverage of the cases about the potential for abuse at the Geneva Freeport, decided to take action. The government announced a series of new measures that will make it far harder for Freeports to be used to shelter art and artifacts from scrutiny indefinitely. Under the new regulations, property can now only be left for six months at the Freeport before it has to be declared.

Separately, the cases have precipitated increased scrutiny on the Singapore Freeport, in which Bouvier is a major shareholder. Both UNESCO, and a task force set up by French President Francois Hollande to tackle art trafficking, have raised serious concerns that the facility in Singapore may have been used by terrorists to store looted artifacts that are then sold on to private collections in order to raise funds for terrorist activities.

The investigation into art trafficking continues.

Other leading figures in the art market have begun commenting on the Affair. In September 2015, for instance, renowned New York gallerist Larry Gagosian said that Bouvier’s supposed business of being a curator through his Freeports and also a dealer represented a clear “conflict of interest”.

US Investigation

In March 2016, it emerged that the American Department of Justice has launched its own investigation into Yves Bouvier. Bloomberg, along with a number of other media outlets, reported that the US authorities are concerned that Bouvier may have misled a number of clients about the extent of the mark ups that he was adding during sale transactions. US officials are also reportedly focused on the wider issues of lack of transparency in the global art market, and its potential to act as a conduit for laundered funds - themes that the Bouvier Affair has thrust into the spotlight.

Singapore Case

In March 2016 there was a major development in the global legal action against Bouvier when the High Court of Singapore dismissed his attempt to suspend the civil suit filed in the territory against him by two companies linked to the Rybolovlev family trust. Bouvier had argued the dispute should be fought in the Swiss courts.

In ajudgment published March 22, Senior Judge Lai Siu Chiu ruled that the Singapore suit, which was filed in the High Court in 2015, should proceed. She said the case should be transferred to the Singapore International Commercial Court, which deals specifically with cross-border commercial disputes.