Post by Bozur on Nov 24, 2005 0:53:33 GMT -5
Swiss Businessman Tries to Seize Art in a Dispute With Russia
By STEVEN LEE MYERS
Published: November 17, 2005
MOSCOW, Nov. 16 - A Swiss businessman's dogged, 14-year campaign to collect a debt from Russia has ensnared, briefly, 54 paintings from the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts of Moscow that had been on display in Switzerland.
The paintings - including works by such masters as Poussin, Manet, Renoir and Cézanne and insured for more than $1 billion - were seized by the Swiss police late Tuesday night as the collection was being boxed up after a five-month exhibition at the Pierre Gianadda Foundation in Martigny.
AFP – Getty Images
Paintings that have been seized include, clockwise from top left, Paul Gauguin's "Are You Jealous?", Vincent van Gogh's "Portrait of Doctor Rey", Auguste Renoir's "Portrait of Mrs Jeanne Samary" and Picasso's "Spanish women on the island of Majorca."
The authorities in the Swiss canton of Valais acted on a court order sought by Nessim D. Gaon, whose relentless legal assault on Russian assets abroad has previously been denounced here as "financial terrorism" and was again on Wednesday.
This is a man, after all, who once filed suit to seize President Vladimir V. Putin's personal jet. In 2000, he impounded a Russian sailing ship in the French port of Brest, along with its crew, for 11 days. He nearly seized two Russian fighter jets at an air show in Paris a year later.
Mr. Gaon's grievance dates from 1991, when his company, NOGA, negotiated contracts to provide loans to what was still the Soviet Union, which agreed to pay in oil. The contracts continued with the new Russian government, but the company soon accused the Russians of failing to pay - an occurrence not uncommon in the economic and political turmoil of the 1990's.
Mr. Gaon began filing suit over the issue in 1993, and international courts have in part upheld the claims, but his latest effort ended as the others had - with a burst of publicity, but ultimately with failure. By Wednesday evening, Switzerland's Federal Council overruled the cantonal court.
"In international law, national cultural goods are regarded as public property, which may not be confiscated," the council declared.
Mr. Gaon, huddled with his lawyers in Geneva, was not available for comment, an assistant said. But NOGA released a pointed statement.
"NOGA was compelled to resort to this seizure of important works of art as a result of the inequitable battle it has had to fight for 14 years against a world power - the world's second largest exporter of oil - that continues not to respect its obligations and, through this behavior, to harm its image as a lawful state," it said.
Russia's reaction ranged from shock to outrage. Officials denounced the seizure as blackmail. Russia's cultural agency ordered the country's museums to call off any future loans to Switzerland.
"Such a method of resolving commercial disputes is uncivilized," the Pushkin's chief curator, Zinaida A. Bonamie, said by telephone. NOGA has filed lawsuits around the world, including in the United States, to seize assets to recover a debt that the company says began at $60 million but has now mushroomed to nearly $900 million, plus interest.
In 1997 and 2001, international arbitration courts in Sweden upheld the company's claims, though only in part. Russia initially ignored the rulings. Officials have since promised to negotiate a settlement.
Russia's finance minister, Aleksei L. Kudrin, told the official Russian Information Agency on Wednesday that Russia acknowledged the Swedish ruling against it, but that it was now seeking a legal injunction to prevent NOGA from "impounding Russian property."
Tom Wright contributed reporting from Switzerland for this article.
By STEVEN LEE MYERS
Published: November 17, 2005
MOSCOW, Nov. 16 - A Swiss businessman's dogged, 14-year campaign to collect a debt from Russia has ensnared, briefly, 54 paintings from the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts of Moscow that had been on display in Switzerland.
The paintings - including works by such masters as Poussin, Manet, Renoir and Cézanne and insured for more than $1 billion - were seized by the Swiss police late Tuesday night as the collection was being boxed up after a five-month exhibition at the Pierre Gianadda Foundation in Martigny.
AFP – Getty Images
Paintings that have been seized include, clockwise from top left, Paul Gauguin's "Are You Jealous?", Vincent van Gogh's "Portrait of Doctor Rey", Auguste Renoir's "Portrait of Mrs Jeanne Samary" and Picasso's "Spanish women on the island of Majorca."
The authorities in the Swiss canton of Valais acted on a court order sought by Nessim D. Gaon, whose relentless legal assault on Russian assets abroad has previously been denounced here as "financial terrorism" and was again on Wednesday.
This is a man, after all, who once filed suit to seize President Vladimir V. Putin's personal jet. In 2000, he impounded a Russian sailing ship in the French port of Brest, along with its crew, for 11 days. He nearly seized two Russian fighter jets at an air show in Paris a year later.
Mr. Gaon's grievance dates from 1991, when his company, NOGA, negotiated contracts to provide loans to what was still the Soviet Union, which agreed to pay in oil. The contracts continued with the new Russian government, but the company soon accused the Russians of failing to pay - an occurrence not uncommon in the economic and political turmoil of the 1990's.
Mr. Gaon began filing suit over the issue in 1993, and international courts have in part upheld the claims, but his latest effort ended as the others had - with a burst of publicity, but ultimately with failure. By Wednesday evening, Switzerland's Federal Council overruled the cantonal court.
"In international law, national cultural goods are regarded as public property, which may not be confiscated," the council declared.
Mr. Gaon, huddled with his lawyers in Geneva, was not available for comment, an assistant said. But NOGA released a pointed statement.
"NOGA was compelled to resort to this seizure of important works of art as a result of the inequitable battle it has had to fight for 14 years against a world power - the world's second largest exporter of oil - that continues not to respect its obligations and, through this behavior, to harm its image as a lawful state," it said.
Russia's reaction ranged from shock to outrage. Officials denounced the seizure as blackmail. Russia's cultural agency ordered the country's museums to call off any future loans to Switzerland.
"Such a method of resolving commercial disputes is uncivilized," the Pushkin's chief curator, Zinaida A. Bonamie, said by telephone. NOGA has filed lawsuits around the world, including in the United States, to seize assets to recover a debt that the company says began at $60 million but has now mushroomed to nearly $900 million, plus interest.
In 1997 and 2001, international arbitration courts in Sweden upheld the company's claims, though only in part. Russia initially ignored the rulings. Officials have since promised to negotiate a settlement.
Russia's finance minister, Aleksei L. Kudrin, told the official Russian Information Agency on Wednesday that Russia acknowledged the Swedish ruling against it, but that it was now seeking a legal injunction to prevent NOGA from "impounding Russian property."
Tom Wright contributed reporting from Switzerland for this article.