Yves Bouvier

Yves Bouvier
Yves Bouvier
Born	(1963-09-08) 8 September 1963 Geneva, Switzerland
Residence	Singapore
Nationality	Swiss
Occupation	CEO, Natural Le Coultre
Known for	Businessman and art dealer
Parent(s)	Jean-Jacques Bouvier

Yves Bouvier (born 8 September 1963) is a Swiss businessman and art dealer best known for his role in the Bouvier Affair. Nicknamed the "king of the freeports", he is the President of Natural Le Coultre, an international company specialized in the transportation, storage, scientific analysis, and conservation of works of art, luxurious goods and other collectibles. He transformed a small family company into the world's largest art shipping and storage business.

Early life

Yves Bouvier is the son of Jean-Jacques Bouvier, owner of Natural Le Coultre, a 150-year-old company specialized in moving and storing goods. Yves Bouvier early developed a passion for art, and joined his father's company in the eighties.^[1]

Natural Le Coultre

Natural Le Coultre, which name was Natural Transports at the time it was created in 1859, was originally a moving and furniture storage company.^[1]

In 1901, Albert-Maurice Natural joins Emile-Etienne Le Coultre. They create A. Natural, Le Coultre & Cie. In 1946, Jean-Jacques Bouvier, father of Yves, begins his apprenticeship at Natural Le Coultre S.A. In 1983, the Bouvier family acquires Natural Le Coultre.

In 1989, Jean-Jacques and Yves Bouvier create Fine Art Transports Natural Le Coultre SA in Geneva. Quickly rising in the company, Yves Bouvier became assistant manager in 1995 and then managing director in 1997.^[2] He sells the moving and furniture storage activities to a local company and focuses the company on storing, moving and preserving pieces of art.^[3]

Yves Bouvier moved to Singapore in 2009 where he currently resides.

Business model

As soon as 2005, Yves Bouvier starts exporting his business model abroad.^[4] The Bouvier model consists of "artistic Hubs" regrouping into Freeports facilities for rent and specific services dedicated to art collectors, museums and companies.^[3]

In 2010, he inaugurated the first Singaporean Freeport, a 30 000 m2 futuristic safe close to the airport, which he funded along with other Swiss investors and helped design.^[5]

In 2014, following the increasing trend of Freeport storage, he inaugurated a brand new 22,000 m2 storage facility in Luxembourg, directly on the Luxembourg airport premises.^[6]

In 2017, a new “Le Freeport” will open its doors in Shanghai, China.^[7]

Background to 2015 cases

For many years, Bouvier was known primarily as an art transporter and also for his ambitious plans to develop the freeport concept across Switzerland, Luxembourg and Singapore.

However, after 2010 he began to be associated with a number of controversial cases involving allegations of irregularities in art sales. First, in 2012 Bouvier was connected to a legal case involving a Canadian collector called Lorette Shefner. Shefner’s family claim that she was the victim of a complex fraud, whereby she was persuaded to sell a Soutine painting at a price far below market value, only to see the work later sold to the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC for a much higher price.^[8][9]

Separately, de la Béraudière was linked to the high-profile criminal case of Wolfgang Beltracchi, a German forger who was convicted in 2011 of having defrauded a number of collectors, including Daniel Filipacchi, of millions of dollars.^[10] Bouvier’s purported connections to Galerie Jacques de la Béraudière and his ownership of an off-shore entity called Diva Fine Arts led to Bouvier also being connected to the Beltracchi case. He has, however, always denied any connection to Beltracchi and dismissed media coverage as uninformed speculation.^[11]

The Rybolovlev Case

On 26 February 2015, Yves Bouvier was arrested in Monaco. He was accused by Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev of defrauding him of hundreds of millions of dollars through the sale of 37 paintings over a 10-year period.^[12][13] Yves Bouvier denied all accusations, argues that he first heard about the complaint was when he was arrested, and explained that the price of the paintings had been agreed by both parties.^[14]

According to Forbes, Dmitry Rybolovlev spent New Year's Eve with Sandy Heller, art adviser to hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen. Heller mentioned to Dmitry Rybolovlev that Cohen had sold a Modigliani nude for $93.5 million to a "mystery buyer", alleging he didn’t know that the buyer was Yves Bouvier. Dmitry Rybolvlev had paid Bouvier $118 million. Rybolovlev filed for fraud and money laundering in Monaco nine days later, and persuaded Bouvier to meet him there to discuss payment details for a Rothko painting, when he was "ambushed" by eight policemen and arrested.^[15][16]

On 13 March 2015, Singapore's High Court ordered the global freezing of Yves Bouvier’s assets,^[17] and then lifted this decision 12 days later, ordering Dmitry Rybolovlev to give a total of $100m guarantee of damages from his action against Bouvier, $20m in cash and an $80m guarantee on the Rothko No. 6 painting.^[16] On 21 August 2015, Singapore's High Court completely removed the freezing injunction, on the ground that the procedure launched by Dmitry Rybolovlev amounted to an abuse of procedure.^[18] In March 2016, the High Court of Singapore dismissed Bouvier's attempt to suspend the civil suit filed in the territory against him by two companies linked to the Rybolovlev family trust, but the case was transferred to the Singapore International Commercial Court, which deals specifically with cross-border commercial disputes.^[19]

After Rybolovlev had also successfully obtained an injunction from Hong Kong’s High Court in July 2015, on 4 September, Yves Bouvier had his assets in Hong Kong unfrozen. High Court recorder Jason Pow Wing-nin SC ordered the injunction against art dealer Yves Bouvier and his Hong Kong company Mei Invest Limited to be lifted.^[20]

Many irregularities were found in Rybolovlev’s complaint against Yves Bouvier: Dmitry Rybolovlev, who served 11 months in jail after his involvement in the murder of Evgeny Panteleymonov, is suspected of collusion on several senior Monegasque officials. He might have plotted against Yves Bouvier with the help of Philippe Narmino, Minister of Justice, and Jean-Pierre Dreno, Prosecutor of Monaco.^[21] In particular, French newspapers Mediapart and Libération revealed that during a dinner in Gstaad, Dmitry Rybolovlev, Philippe Narmino and Gérard Cohen may have discussed the details of the plot, only a few weeks before Bouvier was arrested.^[21]

Furthermore, Yves Bouvier was arrested in Monaco thanks to a false document issued by Bank HSBC. HSBC has been since then accused of forgery and falsification of records. The procedure is pending.^[22]

A former friend of the Rybolovlev family, Tania Rappo, was also charged alongside Bouvier, in her case with money laundering in relation to the fraud. Rappo later alleged that Tetiana Bersheda, lawyer of Rybolovlev, registered at the bar of Geneva, recorded a private conversation without authorization in order to obtain information that might help secure an indictment. However, Bersheda maintains that the recording was of a professional conversation only and, as such, permitted by Monaco law. In any event, the Monaco Justice has yet to make any decision in relation to Rappo's complaint and the charges against Rappo, based partly on the content of the conversation, remain pending.^[23]

On 23 February 2016, Tetiana Bersheda was also charged by Monaco court for violation of the privacy of Tania Rappo.^[24] Dmitry Rybolovlev and his lawyer might be sentenced to up to 3 years of imprisonment. The procedure is pending.^[25]

Rybolovlev's lawyer, Tetiana Bersheda, not only deposed as a witness but also was appointed as her translator when the oligarch was questioned.^[26]

On 14 September 2015, Yves Bouvier was indicted on charges of concealed theft of two Picassos belonging to Catherine Hutin-Blay, who claims that the two Picassos were stolen from her collection. However, Yves Bouvier demonstrated she received the amount of 8 million euros through a Liechtensteiner trust for their sales.^[27] All doubts against Yves Bouvier have been ruled out since and the prosecution of Liechtenstein has closed the case on 1 December 2015.^[28]

In September, Yves Bouvier took legal action in New York against the consultant Sandy Heller, asking that he be questioned about his interactions with Rybolovlev.^[29] Yves Bouvier wants Heller to reveal the advice he may have provided to Rybolovlev - advice Bouvier alleges may have unfairly implicated him in the criminal cases he currently faces in France and Monaco.^[30]

A major article about the Bouvier Affair published in the New Yorker in February 2016 alleged that Bouvier was using the profits from his dealings with Rybolovlev to fund his ambitious plans for the Singapore Freeport. The article quotes a colleague of Bouvier as saying, "...to build freeports you need to be a billionaire...Rybolovlev was the billionaire whose money was building the freeports." As to Bouvier's method of marking up the works he was selling, the New Yorker commented as follows: "When a deal with the seller was in sight, Bouvier would then agree on his own price with Rybolovlev, which was often tens of millions of dollars higher." The magazine provides the example of a “Joueur de Flûte et Femme Nue,” which Bouvier sold to Rybolovlev for twenty-five million euros. Bouvier had bought it the day before for just three and a half million.^[31]

On March 9, 2016, following the lead of European authorities, US Federal prosecutors have opened an investigation into Bouvier, whom they described as "one of the art world’s consummate insiders."^[32]

In April 2016, Bouvier entered a new phase of his campaign to clear his name by hiring global PR group, CNC Communications & Network Consulting, part of French giant Publicis Groupe.^[33] He reportedly turned to the new advisers in an effort to counter a significant amount of negative publicity he has received since the case first came to light.

Separately, in May 2016, in an effort to gain a friendlier hearing, Bouvier’s lawyers filed appealed a Singapore judge’s ruling to move the dispute to the city-state’s International Commercial Court. Bouvier prefers to have the case heard in Switzerland.^[34]

In November 2016, Sotheby's issued a pre-emptive suit in relation to the Salvator Mundi painting, denying that it had ever been part of a scheme allegedly perpetrated by Bouvier to defraud both the sellers of the painting, and Rybolovlev. ^[35] The New York Times subsequently published a major investigative report into the sale, asking whether the sellers of the Salvator Mundi "were misled [by Sotheby's] to favor the Swiss dealer, a valued Sotheby’s client named Yves Bouvier."^[36]

Contributions

Yves Bouvier founded in 2004 the company Art Culture Studio dedicated to the organization of cultural events.

Furthermore, he initiated and chaired the Moscow World Fine Art and the Salzburg World Fine Art Fair.^[37]

In 2008, Yves Bouvier also initiated the creation of the Singapore Pinacothèque de Paris, the first expansion outside Europe of the renowned Pinacothèque de Paris.^[38] According to its website, "The museum in Singapore mirrors that of France, a fine art museum known for its critically acclaimed exhibitions that celebrate transversality and the dialogue between different works of art".

Non-profit activities are part of the proper functioning of the Art Culture Studio, which contributed to the 18st century furniture restoration, in particular to the Empress Joséphine de Fontainebleau boudoir refurbishment.^[39]

Art Culture Studio has been supporting the Renaissance Foundation for Russian Country Homes, a non-profit organization that supports research on the restoration of cultural and historic buildings in rural areas.

Yves Bouvier was one of the main leading figures behind the project for the construction of the "pôle R4", the artistic micro-city of the Seguin Island. This artistic centre, until September 2016 was being managed and financed by Yves Bouvier, and designed by the French architect Jean Nouvel, and was scheduled to open in 2017.^[40]

In September 2016, it was announced that Bouvier had sold his entire stake to the Emerige Group and its financial partner, Addax and Oryx Group Limited (AOG). ^[41][42]

References