Set up view of “Femme dans un rocking-chair (Jacqueline)” (1956) at Christie’s (picture by Man Bell/Alamy Reside Information, courtesy Brewer Administration Company)
An artwork collector has accused Christie’s of failing to reveal that the earlier proprietor of a £14.5 million (~$19.7 million) Picasso portray was a convicted cocaine smuggler.
In a lawsuit filed on July 21 within the UK, Brewer Administration Company alleged that the public sale home misrepresented the provenance of the Cubist portrait “Femme dans un rocking-chair (Jacqueline)” (1956). The British Virgin Islands firm had bought the work via its consultant, collector and enterprise capitalist Sasan Ghandehari, at Christie’s London Night Sale in February 2023. Months later, Ghandehari found that the earlier proprietor, José Mestre Fernandez, had been arrested and convicted for drug trafficking practically a decade earlier, a reality the corporate claims Christie’s didn’t disclose.
“The Defendant’s misrepresentations about the ownership and provenance of the painting were positively misleading, and also had the effect of covering up serious concerns regarding the painting, including the potential that it could represent the proceeds of crime,” the lawsuit reads.
“This is a straight-forward debt claim and Christie’s will robustly defend this claim and continue to pursue the sums rightfully owed to it,” the spokesperson stated.
“Christie’s owes duties of confidentiality to its clients, bidders and buyers but is confident that it has complied with all legal and regulatory obligations in relation to due diligence of the work and our consignor,” the spokesperson continued.
The portray “Femme dans un rocking-chair (Jacqueline)” (1956) was displayed on the Museum of Fashionable Artwork within the 1957 exhibition, Picasso: seventy fifth Anniversary (picture courtesy the Museum of Fashionable Artwork Archives, New York)
The authorized dispute facilities on a third-party assure settlement stipulating that Brewer Administration and Ghandehari would place an “irrevocable bid” on the Picasso portray at public sale and buy the work if no purchaser claimed the portray. The corporate would then resell the work at a better value to a different social gathering.
When the work did not promote to a different bidder, Brewer Administration paid Christie’s an preliminary quantity of simply over £4.8 million (~$6.5 million) per the settlement. By Might, the portray had nonetheless not been resold, and Ghandehari started wanting into the work’s provenance.
Based on the lawsuit, a Christie’s government had “made representations to the effect” that Mestre Fernandez had died and his son had inherited the works after his demise. However after the sale, Ghandehari found via an web search that Mestre Fernandez seemed to be alive and had been convicted and imprisoned in 2014 for trafficking cocaine via Barcelona’s port amenities. This info, the lawsuit claims, rendered the portray “unsaleable or only saleable at a substantial discount.”
Brewer Administration is now looking for to rescind the unique settlement with Christie’s and reimbursement for the preliminary cost. A consultant for the corporate informed Hyperallergic in a press release that the case brings up severe issues “about conflicts of interest and professional standards in high-value art transactions.”
“The claim alleges that Christie’s placed its own commercial interests ahead of its duties to a long-standing client, resulting in serious breaches of trust,” Brewer Administration’s consultant stated.
