The dispute between the art collector Dmitri Rybolovlev and broker Yves Bouvier is rippling out on both sides of the Atlantic as both sides enter the discovery period seeking documents and witnesses. Some of Bouvier assets and bank accounts have been frozen and dealers, curators and lawyers who were involved in the deals are all
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Dmity Rybolovlev has launched a lawsuit in Monaco against Yves Bouvier over the size of the commissions that Bouvier charged him on the sale of some paintings. Bouvier, the Swiss businessman, owns the shipping and storage company Natural Le Coultre and is building a series of Free Ports which are gaining in popularity for the
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The art market powered on through 2014 with gains in most areas. There is plenty of cash looking for a home at this stage of the economic cycle and art continues to gain traction as an alternative asset. Whether the art market needs further regulation has become of interest to mainstream economists and the subject
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Nouriel Roubini, the leading economist, has lately turned his attention to art and the art market (which he believes needs regulation due to “shady behaviour”).  He has now decided that art is a new asset class.  Actually, art has always been an asset class except previous generations just called it something else.  Throughout history good
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Exploring the legacy of WWII in Russian Art is due to open at the Saatchi Gallery on 13th March and run until 6th April.  The exhibition has been organised by Art Russe, the Saatchi Gallery and the Imperial War Museum. Marking the 70th anniversary of the Victory of the Allies against Nazi Germany, the exhibition The
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The Russian art market has cooled off after a ten-year period of rapidly ascending prices.  Various reasons are given for this such the situation in Ukraine, the collapsing ruble and oil price and US-led sanctions.   These all contribute to the real reason which is uncertainty.  Many Russian art collectors have diversified outside of Russia,
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Rumours have been circulating that the fine Tahitian Gauguin of 1892, ‘When Will You Marry?’ has been in play and it has now been announced that it has been sold for a reported US$300m, with the most likely buyer the Royal Family of Qatar.   If Qatar is the buyer, then they have beaten their
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At the World Economic Forum last week in Davos, at an event organised by the Financial Times and the bank Julius Baer, the Economist Nouriel Roubini launched an attack on the art market.  According to Roubini regulation is required in the art market because it suffers from tax evasion, money laundering, price manipulation and trading
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Christopher Marinello is to launch a new database devoted to art recovery and research on the 19th January 2015.  This new business, Art Recovery International,  is to specialise in art recovery, resolving complex title disputes, due diligence and provenance research.  If a dealer. auction room or collector wants to check out an artwork then the
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  What is art?  A question that has puzzled thinkers since the beginning of time.  It can be hieratic, metaphysical, other worldly, beautiful, ugly, precious, technically accomplished, literal, abstact……the list goes on and on.  The only thing for sure is that with the passage of time people gradually understand what is great art and the
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