Romania has received a “long-term holding” on a painting by El Greco, which was pulled from a sales of Christie’s New York Old Masters in February after the Romanian government claimed the work was taken away illegally from its national collection.
Through legal action, Romania secured the title of the painting San Sebastian (1610–1614) will remain in Christie’s New York “until Romania’s recovery efforts are heard and resolved by the appropriate legal authorities” Art newspaper Nixon Peabody, representing Romania’s law firm in New York. The Romanian government has filed a lawsuit to restore painting through Paris.
San Sebastian The Romanian government was canceled from the auction in February after intervention, which the government claimed that the work was “clearly the property of the Romanian country.” It is estimated to be worth between $7 million and $9 million and was positioned as Christie Old Masters Sale’s number one in February.
Since then, court documents have revealed Dmitry Rybolovlev, owner of the Monaco-based Russian billionaire Salvator MundiThe painting was attributed to Leonardo da Vinci and sold in 2017 for a record $450 million.
Rybolovlev reportedly obtained the work of El Greco from the embattled Swiss dealer Yves Bouvier, a businessman who has been attracted to a series of legal dramas for a decade. According to court documents, Rybolovlev purchased San Sebastian From Bouvier to Accent Delight in 2010, his British Virgin Islands are used for art deals with merged offshore companies. The Romanian lawsuit claims Christie’s record of origin is “misleading” because they state that Rybolovlev obtained the work directly from dealer Giraud Pissarro Ségalot, thus omitting Bouvier’s involvement.
A spokesman for Christie asked the case in February, saying the auction house “takes these issues seriously” and withdraws from the sale out of “cautious caution” while the parties involved resolve their legal disputes.
The Romanian government argued that the painting should be restored to its original state, as Michael I, the last Romanian king, illegally removed it from the national collection in 1947 because he was forced to flee the country when the Communist Party came to power. According to the now-deleted online catalog entry published by Christie’s, the painting remained in the country until about 1976, when it entered Wildenstein & Co, New York. Gallery’s shareholding. Over the next decade, Romanian government officials lobbied to restore the painting, and some others also evacuated from exiled monarchs.
Christie’s source states that “ownership was transferred to the King of Romania (1921-2017), and from November 11 to November 1947, consistency with the Romanian government was transferred to the agreement of the Romanian government in 1976 and sold to the people below in 1976 with Wildenstein & Co. in 1976”. San Sebastian It is reported that King Carol I of Romania was acquired in 1898 and bequeathed to the Romanian Royal Crown the following year.
Romanian Ministry of Finance has denounced the narrative as “error” and “definitely deny the painting San Sebastian El Greco transferred from the collection of the Romanian state/government with his consent or agreement.
