A decide has ordered Yves Bouvier to face trial in a Paris legal courtroom over the alleged disappearance of dozens of works by Picasso from a storage unit, which the artist’s stepdaughter had rented from Bouvier’s firm. The Swiss vendor is accused of concealing stolen items and laundering. His pal and enterprise accomplice, Olivier Thomas, faces costs of breach of belief, embezzlement and laundering.
Bouvier launched an enchantment in opposition to the method, which was denied in November 2024, permitting the investigation to proceed. The decide answerable for the investigation confirmed on 15 January 2026 that there’s adequate grounds for Bouvier to go to trial. A trial date has but to be mounted.
The investigation was triggered in 2015 following a grievance from Catherine Hutin, the daughter of Picasso’s final accomplice Jacqueline Roque, after she found that works have been lacking from the unit she had rented from Bouvier’s firm, in a Paris suburb. Eight years earlier than, she had requested Olivier Thomas, an artwork vendor and mutual pal of hers and Bouvier’s, to promote Picasso’s final residence on the Riviera, the Mas Notre-Dame-de-Vie in Mougins, and transfer the furnishings to the storage unit.
Whereas the investigation was underway, Hutin reported additional disappearances, elevating the whole of lacking works to virtually 70. Some have been present in images on Olivier Thomas’ digital camera. Notably, two portraits of her mom and 60 drawings from sketchbooks have been found to have been bought by Bouvier to Dmitri Rybolovlev, for a complete of €36m. The Russian collector filed a grievance however withdrew from the process after his 2023 settlement with Bouvier, regarding a broader nine-year authorized feud.
Bouvier claimed that the Picasso works had come from the late Parisian vendor Jean-François Aittouares. However the investigating decide discovered “there’s not a single component establishing his involvement”. Bouvier tells The Artwork Newspaper that “it was a verbal settlement”, explaining that he paid Hutin $8m for the works underneath investigation, by way of a Lichtenstein belief. However, based on the ruling, this “cost in truth corresponded to a earlier sale of 11 work”, in 2010, which isn’t disputed. “Nonetheless, Mr Bouvier has produced no proof or paperwork on the acquisition of the works” having disappeared from the storage, concluded the decide.
Bouvier tells The Artwork Newspaper a trial is “utterly unjustified and baseless”. “The case is ludicrous. Ms Hutin was paid for the works bought by Mr Bouvier”, says his legal professional, Philippe Valent, who spoke of a “collusion” in opposition to his shopper. Olivier Thomas claims he has “nothing to do” with Bouvier’s gross sales.
Anne-Sophie Nardon, Hutin’s lawyer, says they’re “relieved by a ruling confirming all their suspicions, after a decade-long course of”, and now hope that the “reality can be established in courtroom”.
