Bit by bit, Leonardo’s lost masterpiece revealed itself: the Mona Lisa mouth, the subtle brushwork, the gossamer glaze.
Now, several years after the world learned that a painting long believed to be a copy was in fact the work of Leonardo da Vinci, the $127.5 million masterpiece, “Salvator Mundi,” has landed in the middle of one of the most astonishing art scandals in decades.
What began in the rarefied realms of Monaco and Geneva, with allegations of stolen Picassos and marked-up Modiglianis, has now jumped the Atlantic and drawn the attention of the U.S. Justice Department.
Federal prosecutors, following the lead of European authorities, have opened an inquiry into one of the art world’s consummate insiders, Yves Bouvier -- including his dealings with the rediscovered Leonardo, according to people familiar with the matter.
The move marks the first time that federal authorities have trained their sights on a scandal that has shaken Europe’s notoriously private ecosystem of art dealers, middlemen and collectors. While still in its infancy, the U.S. probe also underscores prosecutors’ general concerns about the opacity of the market in art -- which, like high-end real estate, can serve as a conduit for money laundering.
Forty Works
For months Bouvier, 52, has been battling his one-time patron, the billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev. The Russian oligarch, by his own count, has spent more than $2 billion on close to 40 works purchased through Bouvier over the past decade.
Bouvier swindled Rybolovlev out of many millions by sharply marking up prices on several acquisitions and pocketing the difference, the Russian billionaire alleged in a complaint to Monaco authorities. One work in question is Modigliani’s “Reclining Nude With Blue Cushion,” which Rybolovlev bought for $118 million from hedge fund legend Stephen A. Cohen. Rybolovlev later discovered during a lunch in St. Barts that Cohen had sold the piece for $93.5 million.
Justice Department prosecutors are now examining various art deals Bouvier struck on behalf of clients, including transactions involving not only the Modigliani but also works by Klimt and Rothko, focusing on the extent to which he may have misrepresented to clients how much he’d marked up prices, people familiar with the matter say. Of those works, the Leonardo is perhaps the most famous. If the investigation advances, Bouvier could face fraud charges in the U.S.
Bouvier, who operates out of the Geneva Freeport, a vast, tax-free storehouse for artwork and other valuables, has said he has done nothing wrong and charges what the market will bear.