Two gallery owners to stand trial over stolen Pablo Picasso artworks worth $13 million
In 2011, it was discovered that a handyman had stolen over $13.1 million worth of Pablo Picasso artworks. Last week, the owners of the Belle et Belle gallery, located in Paris, recieved a court hearing after being accused of buying and concealing the stolen works.
The owners are 80-year-old Anne Pfeffer and her husband, Herbert, who have both claimed to be innocent. Yet the prosecutor has suggested that the pair receive a suspended prison sentence.
Handyman Frédéric Munchenbach stole the coveted artworks between 2006 and 2008, walking away with more than 350 drawings and prints made by Picasso, as well as over 100 pieces that the artist had commissioned from other prominent artists. Munchenbach, who had the keys to the neighbouring houses of Catherine Hutin-Blay, daughter of Picasso’s wife Jacqueline Roque and Sylvie Baltazart-Eon, the daughter of art dealer Aimé Maeght, sold the works to Antonio Celano, an Italian junk dealer, receiving just $150,000 in return.
Celano claimed that he sold the pieces to the Belle et Belle gallery. Yet in 2011, the crime came to light when the Boulakia gallery sent four artworks to be authenticated by the Picasso Administration. The junk dealer claims that he was unaware that the paintings were actual Picassos, and the gallery owners have denied any wrongdoing.
Some of the evidence included 56 works found in the couple’s gallery, home, and daughter’s home. During the investigation, it was also discovered that the Pfeffers were using an offshore company associated with an anonymous bank account in Switzerland. They have also failed to record all transactions made within the gallery and have used many cash payments.
The couple’s defence attorney, François Artuphel, said: “There was no way for them to understand that the works they purchased had been stolen.” However, chief investigator Thomas Ehrardy stated that the owners displayed a “particular treachery”. Herbert, a physician, claims that he bribed a patient with Valium prescriptions to testify that he acquired the paintings from him.
Another representative of the defendant, Jacqueline Laffont, claimed that Hutin-Blay and Baltazart-Eon are untrustworthy, noting that they have changed the number of stolen goods several times. However, Baltazart-Eon argued that it is hard to establish a definite number with such a large inventory of works. Their lawyer, Anne-Sophie Nardon, said: “There is nothing normal in their behaviour: the perpetrators are gangrene for the art market.”
A final judgment will be made on November 18th.
