Rybolovlev accused Sotheby's of conspiring with Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier to trick him into paying too much for four works, including Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece Salvator Mundi , a depiction of Jesus Christ that is the most expensive work of art ever sold at auction.
The masterpiece Salvator Mundi costs more than 450 million USD, the highest in the world
Sotheby's has long maintained that it was not responsible for Bouvier's dealings with Rybolovlev. Bouvier is not a defendant in the lawsuit and has denied any wrongdoing.
According to Forbes magazine, Dmitry Rybolovlev (57 years old) has a fortune of 6.4 billion USD after making a business in the field of potash fertilizer. He is also the majority owner of the AS Monaco football team, although it was reported this year that Rybolovlev is considering selling it.
Rybolovlev's lawyer, Daniel Kornstein, said the Sotheby's lawsuit "achieves our goal of shining a light on the lack of transparency that plagues the art market, and the difficulty of proving a complex aiding and abetting fraud."
Sotheby's said the ruling reaffirmed its commitment to maintaining the highest standards of integrity, ethics and professionalism, and reflected the "lack of clear evidence" that it had misled Rybolovlev.
The case is among the highest-profile art fraud disputes in recent years, offering a glimpse into an often secretive industry — where wealthy buyers sometimes have no idea who they are buying from.
Jurors at Manhattan Federal Court took less than a day to reach a verdict in a trial that lasted about three weeks.
Judge Jesse Furman in March 2023 allowed Rybolovlev to pursue fraud claims against works by Leonardo da Vinci, Gustav Klimt, Rene Magritte and Amedeo Modigliani.
Rybolovlev initially sued after purchasing more than 15 world-class works of art for more than $1 billion, accusing Bouvier of profiting hundreds of millions of dollars through markups on purchases and sales.
Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev allowed to sue in Salvator Mundi case despite his own "huge" profits
Judge Furman dismissed fraud charges against 11 other works, including artworks by Pablo Picasso, Auguste Rodin and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
According to court records, Bouvier bought Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi for $83 million in 2013 and sold it the next day to Rybolovlev for $127.5 million through Sotheby's. Rybolovlev went on to sell the masterpiece at Christie's in 2017 for $450.3 million, a record for a work of art.
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