Jaime Botin Is Sentenced to Prison in Picasso Smuggling Fiasco
A Botin Took a Picasso From Spain on a Yacht. It Cost Him Dearly
(Bloomberg) -- Jaime Botin, the uncle of Banco Santander SA Chairman Ana Botin, was sentenced to 18 months in prison and fined 52.4 million euros ($58 million) for smuggling a Pablo Picasso painting out of Spain.
Botin, former head of lender Bankinter SA and a member of the dynasty that has run Santander for more than a century, was found guilty of trafficking culturally important goods and ordered to hand over the artist’s “Head of a Young Woman” which is valued at 26 million euros. The painting was seized from Botin’s yacht in Corsica after he took it there in breach of court orders that it should stay in Spain.
Spain has some of the strictest heritage laws in Europe. Any work of art more than 100 years old that is considered culturally important can be deemed a national treasure, forcing owners to obtain a permit before taking it out of the country. Botin was denied such a permit for the Picasso.
Prosecutors argued that Botin was smuggling the painting out of Spain -- instructing the captain of his yacht to lie to law enforcement -- with the objective of selling it at a London auction house. Botin countered that since the painting had been kept on his yacht, it had never been on Spanish territory and that he therefore had the right to take it to Switzerland for safekeeping, local media reported.
Early Work
Picasso painted “Head of a Young Woman” aged 24 in the early 1900s and Botin acquired the piece in 1977, according to U.K. website Artlyst. The work is a rare example of the “Rose” period predating the artist’s shift into the cubist style that produced some of his most famous works, such as the anti-war “Guernica” displayed in Madrid.
Spanish authorities have long suspected Botin of planning to sell the painting. In 2012 he authorized Christie’s auction house to seek an export permit from Madrid to London, Spanish Judge Elena Gonzalez concluded in her ruling. The painting was being billed as one of the top draws at an auction scheduled for February 2013, internal emails at Christie’s presented as evidence in the court showed.
But Christie’s and Botin hit a snag. Spain’s Culture Ministry denied the permit to take the artwork abroad. In 2015, Botin had his chauffeur drive the painting from Madrid to Valencia where Adix, his 212-foot three-masted schooner was moored. When police inspected the yacht in June 2015 the captain of the ship omitted the painting from the list of artworks on board.
The Adix set sail soon afterward, bound for Corsica, where Botin had commissioned a private jet to take the painting to Geneva, court documents show. When French police received notification that Botin had requested a permit to transport the painting they inspected the yacht and found the painting in the captain’s cabin, wrapped up in packaging.
Boatload of Trophies
While the high seas may not be the best place for works by one of the 20th century’s most influential artist, it’s not uncommon for the super-wealthy to decorate their yachts with trophy art. British billionaire Joe Lewis has hung Francis Bacon’s “Triptych 1974 – 1977,” worth an estimated $70 million, on the lower deck of his super yacht. A Saudi Crown Prince’s luxury vessel was the reported location last year for the world’s most expensive painting, Leonardo Da Vinci’s $450-million “Salvator Mundi.”
Today, so many of the world’s wealthy are hanging artworks on their yachts that managing the pieces has become a line of business in the boating industry. The website of one firm providing such services cites insurance, light and climate control are as matters to consider when installing works on-board.
Botin must pay court costs on top of a fine double the painting’s value. The piece was seized by the state and handed over to the Reina Sofia art museum in Madrid. It’s currently sitting in deposit while authorities decide where to assign it.
Picasso’s popularity in recent years will make Botin’s loss all the more painful. In 2018, another work from the artist’s “Rose” period sold for $115 million when Christie’s auctioned off David and Peggy Rockefeller’s collection, indicating the financier may have received an even higher valuation for the work.
Botin has ten days to appeal the sentence.
To contact the reporters on this story: Charlie Devereux in Madrid at cdevereux3@bloomberg.net;Ben Stupples in London at bstupples@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Dale Crofts at dcrofts@bloomberg.net, Ross Larsen
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