Lichtenstein Investigated Yves Bouvier

The legal troubles of controversial art transporter Yves Bouvier were even greater in 2015, and were fought on even more fronts than had previously been known.
Already facing two separate criminal cases in France and Monaco, and connected to a number of other fraud allegations, it emerged on Friday December 18th that Bouvier was also under investigation by the Lichtenstein authorities on suspicion of money laundering.
The news, first broken by Swiss outlet La Tribune de Genève, was a sensational new development, in an affair that broke open this year and has so far been full of sensational developments.
As the Tribune reported, the Lichtenstein authorities opened a wide-ranging investigation into Bouvier’s activities on July 9th 2015. So far, Bouvier has not been charged and the inquiry was put on hold at the beginning of December.
Nonetheless, the investigation in Lichtenstein underlines how the Bouvier Affair has sent shockwaves, not only through the global art market, but also through many jurisdictions around the world that are traditionally known for their discretion and laissez-faire approach.
It is clear that governments and regulators are spooked by the Bouvier Affair.
The investigation in Lichtenstein centred on Bouvier’s company Natural Le Coulture and the suspicion that it may have used a Lichtenstein-based bank to funnel the proceeds from the sales of artworks.
In particular, the investigation focused on two Picasso works that were allegedly stolen from the master’s step-daughter, Catherine Hutin-Blay and then sold to Monaco collector Dmitry Rybolovlev.
(Bouvier has already been indicted in France on charges of concealed theft in relation to the criminal complaint filed by Catherine Hutin-Blay. In Monaco, he faces a trial next year on charges of fraud and money laundering in the Rybolovlev case, after failing last month in attempt to have the charges dropped.)
However, perhaps the most shocking and sensational aspect of Friday’s news was the revelation that the Lichtenstein authorities were looking into potential money laundering related to a fake Max Ernst work – a work created by none other than the notorious German forger Wolfgang Beltracchi.
The media have long speculated about Bouvier’s potential links to the infamous Beltracchi fraud, a scheme that used a network of galleries and off-shore entities to defraud prominent collectors of tens of millions of dollars. Beltracchi himself was convicted and sentenced to 6 years in prison.
To be fair, Bouvier was not convicted in either the Beltracchi case, or the separate case of the late Canadian collector Lorette Shefner whose family sued Bouvier for his alleged role in a fraud perpetrated against her.
However, the latest news out of Lichtenstein might just prompt the art market to take another look back at those cases.