Embattled Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier and his business partner Olivier Thomas should stand trial in France on charges related to the disappearance of dozens of Picasso’s works more than a decade ago, a French court has said.

On November 7, a chamber of the Paris appeals court ruled rejecting Bouvier’s attempt to annul the long-running legal proceedings.

The charges the couple face stem from a criminal investigation that began in 2015 when Jacqueline Picasso’s daughter, Catherine Hutin, discovered several works missing from a warehouse she rented in a Paris suburb. According to his inventory, nearly 70 drawings and paintings were missing. They had been placed in storage in 2018 by Olivier Thomas, who was tasked by Hutin with removing part of Jacqueline Picasso’s collection from a property on the French Riviera. The storage facility belonged to Bouvier’s company, Art Transit International.

Hutin also said he discovered that two lost portraits of his mother, dated 1957, were sold by Bouvier to his client Dmitri Rybolovlev in 2013 for 27 million euros.

Hutin says he was warned by a restorer who claimed to have been called in 2012 by Thomas and Jean-Marc Peretti, also Bouvier’s business partners, to do light preservation work on five works in the storage unit. The conservator also stated that a year later, Bouvier restored three more works by Picasso at his headquarters in Geneva Freeport. All of the artifacts appear in the missing items list.

Although some of the work appeared in photographs found on his computer, Thomas denied any knowledge of it. Peretti did not face any charges. Bouvier also denied any wrongdoing, claiming he purchased the two portraits from the late Parisian gallery owner Jean-Marc Aittouares. However, researchers found no trace of such a transaction.

Bouvier also said that he paid Hutin 9 million euros for the works in 2010, but the investigation concluded that these payments “corresponded to 13 other paintings” sold by Hutin through Thomas at an earlier date and that “none of these appear in the painting.” list of referred properties”.

Bouvier and Thomas were charged with possession of stolen goods, while Thomas was also charged with fraud. Last June, the prosecutor requested that both men be sent to trial. However, the decision based on the investigating judge was postponed due to Bouvier’s objection to stop the case. Bouvier claimed the investigation was biased and flawed by a number of irregularities, including contacts with Rybolovlev’s lawyer that showed him colluding with his former nemesis (Bouvier and Rybolovlev settled their nine-year legal battle in December 2023).

But last week the Paris court rejected all of Bouvier’s objections, saying it had shown “no evidence of bias” by any of the investigating judges or police.

Hutin’s lawyer Anne-Sophie Nardon explains Art Newspaper His client is relieved by the possibility of a hearing: “He has been waiting for ten years for justice to be served and his works to be returned. “This well-founded decision represents a decisive step towards the truth.”

Bouvier’s lawyer, Philippe Valent, said he appealed to the high court “to annul this decision.” In a statement, he condemned a decision that “rejects the secret maneuvers between the parties and the disloyalty of judges and investigators.” He says the court “stands for a frenzied corporatism that raises fears of the rule of law in a democracy.” He insisted that “Ms. Hutin has filed a ridiculous complaint alleging that work for which she was paid was stolen.”