Russian billionaire who sued Sotheby’s for helping dupe him out of over $160m for da Vinci’s ‘Lost Leonardo’ and other paintings loses art fraud case

A New York federal jury deliberated for a few hours before reaching a decision in Dmitry Rybolovlev’s case against Sotheby’s, The New York Times reported. The fertilizer titan alleged that the auction house helped a Swiss art dealer cheat him out of over $160 million by quietly imposing huge markups on works that he acquired. Tearing up when he testified earlier this month, he said he’d not only lost money but trust.

Sotheby’s maintained it knew nothing of any misconduct and said it had followed all legal, financial and industry standards. It cast the decision Tuesday as a mark of total vindication.

“Today’s ruling reaffirms Sotheby’s long-standing commitment to upholding the highest standards of integrity, ethics and professionalism in all aspects of the art market,” the auction house said in a statement after the verdict.

However, Rybolovlev lawyer Daniel Kornstein said that “secrecy made it difficult to prove a complex aiding and abetting fraud case.”

“This case achieved our goal of shining a light on the lack of transparency that plagues the art market,” the attorney said, calling for reforms that “must be made outside the courtroom.”

Rybolovlev, 57, spent $2 billion from 2002 to 2014 to build a prime art collection featuring works by such giants as Picasso, Rodin, Modigliani, Klimt, Magritte and Leonardo da Vinci. For help finding and acquiring art, he turned to Swiss broker Yves Bouvier.

The collector testified that he trusted Bouvier “like family,” even inviting him to small birthday parties — before coming to believe that the art dealer was cheating him. He alleged that Bouvier hugely padded the prices that Rybolovlev was paying and pocketing the difference, along with his agreed-upon 2% commission.

Bouvier and Rybolovlev settled in December for undisclosed terms, according to Bouvier’s lawyers. They said this month that he “strongly objects to any allegation of fraud.”

In private…