The legal battle around the sale of a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci continues

It is a drawing no bigger than a pocket handkerchief, but which is worth millions of euros.Since its discovery in 2016, the sale of a brown ink study attributed to Léonardo da Vinci, representing the martyrdom of Saint-Sébastien, has been the subject of a furious battle.

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For almost fifty-seven years, the masterpiece, entitled Study for a Saint-Sébastien in a landscape, slept in a drawing card, without anyone suspecting the identity of its author.

Its owner, Jean B., a retired general practitioner, had received him as a gift from his father in 1959, in the middle of a dozen other drawings and engravings, for having successfully completed the competition for the Paris Hospitals in Paris.

But the young man, more lover of rock than fine arts, had relegated him in a corner and forgotten.Until the favor of a move in 2016, he decided to entrust the card to the Tajan sales house for expertise.

A national treasure

Quickly spotted by Thaddée Prat, the director of the department of old Tajan paintings, the drawing is first estimated between 20.000 at 30.Euros.

Then the expert Patrick de Bayser, requested by the establishment, concludes that the study is from the hand of Léonardo da Vinci, an opinion confirmed by the greatest specialist in the drawings of the Renaissance master, Carmen C.Bambach, from the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

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The value of the work of art immediately explodes to a range of 8 to 12 million euros.Quickly, and discreetly, it is classified as a national treasure, a procedure which makes it possible to prohibit its export and leaves thirty months to the Ministry of Culture to acquire it for the benefit of the Louvre Museum.

Summons

The ministry made in July 2019 an offer of 10 million euros to Jean B., who refuses.And for good reason, a new expertise now estimates the masterpiece at 15 million euros.Without being able to gather this sum, the State renounces the acquisition.

From then on, a showdown undertakes.To the owner, now an octogenarian, who requests an export certificate to be able to sell the drawing abroad, the Ministry of Culture opposes a new refusal, arguing that the drawing could in fact have been stolen and that a complaint in thismeaning was deposited at the end of 2020.Complaint classified without follow -up.

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"The way Roselyne Bachelot has managed this file is catastrophic," criticizes Me Olivier Baratelli, who defends Dr. B.The lawyer assigned an internship before the Paris judicial court, the Minister of Culture and the assistant to the Department of the Ministry's collections, Claire Chastanier, to force them to issue the Certificate of Export.The hearing before the civil judge, referred for the first time, was to be held today.

At the end of heated debates, the president of the judicial court asked the owner's lawyer, Doctor Jean B., to present him before October 27, his written observations justifying his decision to seize a civil judge and not an administrative judge, with regard to a dispute between an individual and the public authorities.

"I had no classification notice," said Aurélien Burel, lawyer for Ms. Bachelot and Ms. Chastanier, explaining that the ministry had not opposed refusal to the owner but simply "suspended" the procedure ofprocessing of the certificate, until the criminal procedure is completed.

At the same time, Dr. Jean B.scrap with Tajan.After having discovered in our columns that the auction house had decided to put the drawing at auction before the thirty -month period expressed, without consulting it and in agreement with the Louvre, the owner decided to revoke the mandate hehad granted him.

Slanderous denunciation

A decision little appreciated by Tajan: the house claims 2 million euros for him for the deduction and the costs caused."The money is crazy!The Tajan house was intoxicated by money, gets carried away Me Baratelli.Not only did she behave badly vis-à-vis Dr. Jean B., but when he discovered this betrayal, Tajan refused to restore him the drawing of Leonard de Vinci ”.

Faced with what he describes as "blackmail", "breach of confidence" and "attempted extortion", the lawyer quoted the company and its president, Rodica Seward, before the Paris Criminal Court.

This procedure makes it possible to enter the court directly without going through a criminal investigation, dependent for the complainants to collect and present the evidence at the hearing.This must now be held in December.

The auction house, defended by Me Basile Ader, immediately replied by a slanderous action action."This drawing was discovered, authenticated, certified and promoted by Tajan's work," retorts the house.As a consequence of this break, Tajan asks that the costs incurred and paid for the usual deduction be reimbursed for all the work accomplished on this drawing since its deposit on March 15, 2016 ”.

The auction house also observes that Jean B.had already been dismissed in 2020 an action before the judge in summary proceedings to recover his drawing and describes as "imaginary crimes" the grievances mentioned in his quote.The struggle to acquire the few rare works by Leonardo da Vinci is far from over!