It’s nice that I only heard of this once the legal battles were all dealt with.

The two billionaires in question are Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier and his ex-client, Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev. Rybolovlev accused Bouvier of defrauding him of €1.2 billion through the sale of 38 artworks with overcharged prices. The collection of art was sold for a total of €2 billion between 2003 and 2014. The lawsuits went on from 2015 to 2023.

Now who was in the right here? Well, all we know is what was established legally. Rybolovlev lost cases filed across many countries, including Singapore, Hong Kong, New York, Switzerland, and Monaco.

Once all the cases were cleared, Bouvier said: “Today marks the end of a nine-year nightmare. Courts all around the world have now unanimously concluded that I was innocent.”

It should be noted that Bouvier did lose a lot throughout these years. His international art business is in shambles. He has been investigated for money laundering and other cases of fraud.

Also, the high-profile nature of the lawsuits made lawmakers worldwide, especially in Europe, more attentive toward the opaque nature of the international fine art market. Regulatory action has been proposed by EU parliamentarians due to worries about taxation shields using the art trade.

I tweeted this chart before. It gives you a glimpse of the biggest players in the fine art market.

The previous post tagged “Random” is about companies messing up official financial reports. You can read it here.