Collector Sasan Ghandehari recently filed a lawsuit against Christie’s, alleging that the auction house did not inform him that a painting by Pablo Picasso was owned by someone convicted of drug-related charges before he purchased the work.
According to the Financial Times, which first reported news of the lawsuit, Brewer Management Corporation (BMC) guaranteed it would buy Picasso’s Femme dans un rocking-chair (1956) for £14.5 million if the artwork piece failed to sell during a Christie’s evening sale in London in February 2023.
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The authorized representative of BMC, which is based in the British Virgin Islands, is London-based Ghandehari, according to the Financial Times. Ghandehari, a venture capitalist, appears on the ARTnews Top 200 Collector alongside his wife Yassmin.
The lawsuit, filed in the High Court of England & Wales, Chancery Division on July 21, alleges that the Femme dans un rocking-chair was owned by José Mestre Sr., also known as José Mestre Fernández, who was investigated by police, sentenced to nine years in prison, and fined €14 million after police found 202 kilos of cocaine hidden on a cargo ship in 2010.
According to the lawsuit, Christie’s told Ghandehari that Mestre’s son, José Mestre Jr, was the owner of the painting at the time of the sale, but BMC says it would have never signed the contract for the third-party guarantee if the auction house had disclosed the drug-related conviction of José Mestre Sr. to Ghandehari.
The lawsuit requests that Christie’s cancel the contract for the third-party guarantee and return the partial payment of £4.8 million.
A third-party guarantee allows a guarantor to receive part of the upside if a work sells; that guarantor also agrees to purchase the work if there are no other buyers. These types of guarantees transfer the risk of a failed sale from a house to an outside party, something that has become increasingly common during high-profile auctions.
The Financial Times noted that Ghandehari had previously guaranteed Picassos sold by Christie’s.
The lawsuit claims that Christie’s was “positively misleading” about the ownership and provenance of Femme dans un rocking-chair and did not disclose “the potential that it could represent the proceeds of crime”. The lawsuit also claims that a senior executive at the auction house told Ghandehari that Mestre Sr. had passed away and that “everything was above board” relating to the ownership history of the painting.
A Christie’s spokesperson told ARTnews, “This is a straight-forward debt claim and Christie’s will robustly defend this claim and continue to pursue the sums rightfully owed to it. Christie’s owes duties of confidentiality to its clients, bidders and buyers but is confident that it has complied with all legal and regulatory obligations in relation to due diligence of the work and our consignor.”
ARTnews has reached out to the legal team representing BMC and Ghandehari.
