A French court has ruled that Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier and his business partner Olivier Thomas should stand trial over allegations related to the disappearance of multiple Picasso artworks from a storage unit over a decade ago, according to the Art Newspaper.
The decision, handed down November 7 by a Paris appeals court, dismissed Bouvier’s attempt to curb the legal proceedings against him related to the works. The case began in 2015 when Catherine Hutin, Jacqueline Picasso’s daughter, discovered that around 70 Picasso works were missing from a storage unit she had leased in a Paris suburb, where they had been placed by Thomas in 2008. The facility belonged to Bouvier’s company, Art Transit International.
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Hutin’s concerns grew after she learned that two missing portraits of her mother had been sold by Bouvier in 2013 to Russian billionaire Dmitri Rybolovlev for $28.5 million. According to Hutin, she was contacted by a conservator who claims to have been hired by Thomas and another Bouvier associate, Jean-Marc Peretti, in 2012 to perform light conservation on five works from her storage unit. That conservator later reportedly worked on three additional Picasso pieces at Bouvier’s Geneva Freeport headquarters, all of which appeared on Hutin’s list of missing works.
Thomas denied knowledge of any wrongdoing, though investigators discovered photos of some missing pieces on his computer. Bouvier also denied the charges, claiming he purchased the portraits from the late gallery owner Jean-Marc Aittouares.
However, investigators could not find evidence of this transaction. Bouvier also claims that he paid €9 million to Hutin for the works in 2010, but the payments were found to correspond to 13 other paintings previously sold by Hutin through Thomas, not those on the list of missing items.
Both Bouvier and Thomas face charges of possession of stolen goods, while Thomas is also charged with fraud. The court’s recent decision follows a request from prosecutors in June for both men to stand trial. Bouvier sought to halt the proceedings, arguing that the investigation was biased and influenced by Rybolovlev’s legal team, referencing his previous legal disputes with Rybolovlev, which were resolved in 2023. However, the Paris court found “no evidence of partiality” on the part of investigators.
Hutin’s lawyer, Anne-Sophie Nardon, welcomed the ruling. Nardon told the Art Newspaper that Hutin “has been waiting for a decade for justice be done and her works to be restituted. This perfectly grounded decision represents a decisive step towards the truth.”
Philippe Valent, Bouvier’s attorney, said he’d appeal to France’s high court, claiming the ruling overlooks alleged “disloyalty” among investigators and accuses the court of siding with “frenzied corporatism.” He added that “Ms. Hutin filed an absurd complaint for the alleged theft of works she had been paid for.”