Joy of Life or, Antipolis (1946)

The painter’s ‘‘Joy of Life or, Antipolis” (1946) was inspired by vacations that he took in Antibes. Musée Picasso, Antibes, France/The Bridgeman Art Library

Spain billionaire guilty of trying to smuggle a Picasso

A Spanish billionaire art collector has been sentenced to 18 months in jail and fined $58m (£44m) for trying to smuggle a Picasso abroad to sell at auction.

The painter's work Head of a Young Woman, declared a national treasure, was seized from Jaime Botín's yacht in Corsica, France, in 2015.

Botín, 83, is the grandson of the founder of Santander bank and was its vice president until 2004.

He was forced to forfeit the work. He may appeal against his sentence.

However, he is unlikely to spend time behind bars as first-time offenders for non-violent crimes in Spain are often spared prison if they receive sentences of less than two years.

Prosecutors said Botín planned to sell the Picasso at auction in London.

Any piece of art more than 100 years old and deemed culturally significant enough is registered as a national treasure, meaning owners must request permission before taking it outside of the country.

Botín, who bought the painting in 1977 in London, had already been denied a permit.


He argued that he had the right to take it to Geneva for safekeeping, while his lawyers said that the state could not lay claim to the painting as it had only been in Spanish territory for six months since its purchase.

But Botín was found guilty of "smuggling cultural goods" for removing the painting "from national territory without a permit".

The 1906 piece - worth an estimated €26m ($29m; £22m) - is one of the few painted by Picasso during his Gosol period, a precursor to Cubism.

The artwork is now property of the state and has been given to the Reina Sofia art museum in Madrid.

Picasso's Courtesans May Fetch $140 Million at Christie's

• Christie’s Hopes for Record Price With Picasso, Asking $140 Million Price tag on ‘Women of Algiers (Version O)’ is highest ever on artwork headed for auction

Christie’s will try to make auction history this spring when it asks at least $140 million for Pablo Picasso’s 1955 “Women of Algiers (Version O),” the highest price tag ever placed on an artwork headed for auction.

Two years ago, the auction house set an $85 million price tag on a Francis Bacon triptych, “Three Studies of Lucian Freud,” and wound up selling it to casino developer Elaine Wynn for a record $142.4 million.

On May 11, in New York, the auction house will try to top that with the Picasso.

In the auction industry, an artwork’s estimate is often a reasonable starting point for interested bidders to offer even higher sums to win the work.

Christie’s said the seller of the Picasso remains anonymous, but the work last changed hands 18 years ago when the estate of U.S. collectors Victor and Sally Ganz sold it through the auction house to a London dealer for $31.9 million.

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Picasso, who died at 91 in 1973, has nevertheless traditionally been included in auctions of Impressionist and Modern art. But Christie’s said that the broadening client base at the week of contemporary art sales in New York was crucial in persuading an unidentified seller to come forward with Picasso’s 1955 canvas “Les Femmes d’Alger (Version ‘O’),” around which the auction house fashioned its “Looking Forward to the Past” sale. Inspired by Eugène Delacroix’s 1834 Orientalist masterpiece, “Women of Algiers,” this was one of a number of works Picasso produced in the 1950s and 1960s in response to earlier artists he admired. This particular painting was last seen on the market in November 1997, when it was bought by the London dealer Libby Howie, on the behalf of a client, for $31.9 million at Christie’s auction from the collection of the Americans Victor and Sally Ganz.

Christie’s new valuation of about $140 million on this opulent Picasso ranks as one of the highest estimates ever put on an artwork at auction. Francis Bacon’s “Three Studies of Lucian Freud,” which sold for a record $142.4 million at Christie’s in November 2013, carried a presale estimate of more than $85 million. Christie’s has guaranteed the seller of “Les Femmes d’Alger (Version ‘O’)” an undisclosed minimum price. It would not specify whether this guarantee had been funded by the auction house or by a third party.

The seller is a European collector who acquired the work at the Ganz auction, according to Christie’s. Other works in Mr. Gouzer’s sale include a 1950s Mark Rothko abstract, estimated at about $40 million, and a 1902 Monet series painting, at about $35 million. Works by Piet Mondrian, Egon Schiele, René Magritte and Martin Kippenberger will also be included.

“This reassessment of the importance of what’s gone before is fascinating,” said Wendy Goldsmith, an art adviser in London who was the international head of 19th-century European art at Christie’s from 2000 to ’03. Ms. Goldsmith, along with many dealers and advisers, has noted a cooling of demand for the young abstract painters. “There is a feeling that people are already saturated with the new and the young,” she said, “and so they’re looking back.”

Last week, Mr. Gouzer posted an image of a 1938 Picasso painting of Dora Maar on Instagram. That work will be in his sale with an estimate of more than $50 million. But there are still gaps, Mr. Gouzer said. “I’m still looking for a 1960s Carl Andre.”