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In the heart of the Swiss Alps, on the shores of Lake Geneva, in the land of banks and discretion, you will discover the most secretive place in Switzerland.
Explore the secretive Geneva Freeport, a hidden art storage hub housing priceless works and its role in the opaque global art market.
Key Takeaways
- The Geneva Freeport is a critical but secretive hub for storing and trading high-value art and assets.
- Secrecy and discretion are paramount in the art market, impacting ownership transparency and pricing.
- Yves Bouvier played a pivotal role in shaping the modern art storage and logistics industry.
- The Freeport’s role in illicit activities highlights vulnerabilities in the global art trade.
- The art business relies heavily on insider knowledge and confidential networks.
Summary
- The Geneva Freeport is a highly secure storage complex in Switzerland, housing valuable assets including gold, diamonds, fine wine, and priceless artworks.
- It operates as a customs zone with strict Swiss customs control, offering confidentiality and discretion to art owners and dealers.
- The Freeport stores works by renowned artists such as Picasso, Rembrandt, and Leonardo da Vinci, but the exact inventory and ownership remain secret.
- Yves Bouvier, known as the Freeport King, transformed a shipping company into a multinational art storage and transport business with workshops and private viewing rooms.
- The Freeport serves as a discreet meeting place for dealers, gallery owners, and buyers to negotiate and admire art away from public scrutiny.
- Bouvier also operates a prestigious gallery in Paris, dealing in high-value artworks by artists like Rodin, Dalí, and Chagall, maintaining strict confidentiality on prices.
- The art market thrives on information and secrecy, with dealers valuing discretion on ownership, pricing, and provenance.
- The Freeport has been linked to controversies including money laundering, tax fraud, and the looting of Jewish assets, highlighting the darker side of art storage.
- Bouvier’s rise from shipper to multimillionaire art dealer underscores the lucrative and opaque nature of the art business.
- Recent lawsuits and media scrutiny have challenged the reputation of Bouvier and the Freeport, revealing tensions in the secretive art world.
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
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In the middle of a warehouse complex, a stone's throw from the border with France, is the Geneva Freeport.
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Watched by surveillance cameras and surrounded by barbed wire fences, this complex is traditionally a customs zone where merchandise is stored before being exported abroad.
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But today, it has become a permanent storage site with 60,000 square meters of space rented by the city of Geneva to transporters or to private individuals to safeguard their assets.
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Behind these anonymous double-locked doors, there is gold and diamonds. It is also the largest wine cellar in the world, with 3 million bottles laid to rest.
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Go include bottles worth 500, 1000, 2,000 dollars, quietly maturing and gaining in value at a constant temperature and humidity.
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These buildings are anti-earthquake and the doors resistant to explosives. And to protect these treasures from fire,
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a special room houses hundreds of extinguishers that can be activated at any moment. Another reason the Freeport takes so many precautions is because behind its gates rest priceless works of art thought to be worth tens of billions of dollars.
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It's perhaps the world's largest museum, but a museum no one can visit. The Geneva Freeport is one of Europe's best-kept secrets.
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It stores works by Picasso, Rembrandt, Leonardo da Vinci, and thousands of antiquities. A treasure, the size of which nobody knows the scale or the value.
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You'll never obtain an inventory of all the works in the Freeport. Who knows how many there are?
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300, 3000? 300,000. Another secret is the name of the owners of the works. You don't want anyone to know what you're up to, and that's where the Freeport comes in.
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Recently, a number of cases have tainted the institution's name. The looting of Jewish assets, money laundering, tax fraud.
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It's hard to say if it was hidden or not, but it was kept very discreetly in the Freeport.
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The Geneva Freeport is an El Dorado for art dealers, wealthy heirs, and fraudsters. It's where they do their business hidden from view.
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One man agreed to open the doors of the Freeport to us. Yves Bouvier. With his managing director, Ramon Casas, he runs the world's biggest company in the transport and storage of artworks.
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Are there customs officers here? Swiss customs are here permanently. The site is controlled by them and they impose the opening times.
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It's impossible to enter outside of those hours and Swiss customs permanently control that. The procedures in place are the strictest in all Europe.
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Every day, dozens of priceless artworks enter or leave the storerooms managed by Yves Bouvier's company.
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There's even a special workshop to pack and prepare the works for shipment. Sit, sit and listen.
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This is a very important painting that's leaving for an exhibition in a museum in Hungary.
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In a special isothermal crate. Here, look here. It has special antacid paper. What's that? Just behind.
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It's a painting by Modigliani. I shouldn't be telling you that. You know. Can we see the Modigliani?
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No, because it's a question of confidentiality. Why is that? Because its owner hasn't authorized me to show it.
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Is it a private owner? I can't tell you that. Does it belong to a museum?
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Listen, I can't tell you that. It's confidential. Yes, everything's confidential. Here, the watchword is secrecy.
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Yves Bouvier was originally a shipper, but he transformed his old shipping company, Natural Lookout,
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founded in 1859, into an art market multinational. It is now present in Geneva, Luxembourg, and Singapore.
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The man nicknamed the Freeport King had a great idea to earn client loyalty. His company would not only pack and ship artworks, it would provide in Geneva 20,000 square meters of storage space, along with framing and restoration workshops.
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It also offers its clients special rooms in which to admire their assets or negotiate sales.
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Dealers, gallery owners, and buyers can thus meet in total discretion. Today, the former shipper has become a multimillionaire.
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We meet him again in Paris, in the high-class eighth district, a stone's throw from the Élysée Palace.
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Yves Bouvier, the shipper of the Geneva Freeport, welcomes us to his Paris home, a richly decorated and furnished apartment.
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Not even a salon. This is the living room with Baudelaire. I love his poetry, so this is a nod to him.
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I also love this globe, which belonged to Danielle Rousseau, who painted jungle scenes with animals, although he never
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traveled. It was in a bad state, so I had it restored. This is a small romantic work by Bonnard.
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It's very pure and simple. By storing and shipping his clients' artworks, Yves Bouvier gradually learned another, much more lucrative trade as an art dealer.
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Just because you fell. What have I done in 30 years of working in the art world?
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I learned to listen to the professionals and find out how things worked. I learned to listen to insurers and restorers.
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I got to know the business instead of lugging crates around. I knew how to open my ears and learn the ropes.
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Lots of art dealers are ex-restorers, ex-restaurant owners, ex-clothes store owners, ex-butchers.
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Butcher. So like them, I learn through practice. For 30 years, Yves Bouvier has been in the ideal place to learn the secrets of the market.
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In the art business, every dealer wants to get hold of information. All dealers thrive on information, so they need it.
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Knowing which painting is up for sale, who's overseeing it, whether there's an inheritance, whether there's trouble, like a divorce, everyone's after information.
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Being in the know is key in the art market. Whether it's buying or selling, everyone wants information.
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Thanks to the network he's built up, the businessman has even opened a gallery on the Quai Voltaire, the Antique Dealers District, one of Paris's most prestigious addresses. He takes us there.
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He wants to show us how well-established he is and how he buys and sells some of the most renowned names in painting and sculpture.
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How are you? Good, and you? Fine, thanks. You look very serious. Very, I got your office ready.
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Coming up with us. The gallery director greets us. The gallery houses significant and very expensive works.
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This marble sculpture of Eve is by Auguste Rodin. It's already been reserved by an Asian client.
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Yes. Original. It's an original piece in marble, not a bronze, of which several casts were made.
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It's particularly beautiful and sensual. Her position, her legs, her hair all expressed great sensuality with Rodin.
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As with all artists, some of his works speak to you more than others. Everyone has subjects that particularly move you, and this is a subject that moves me enormously.
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Farther on, more famous signatures and ink drawings by Salvador Dalí, a Chagall. And how about the Chagall? Is it for sale?
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Sure. All these works are for sale. And what's the price of the Chagall? I can't tell you the price of the Chagall, because a price is a very delicate matter.
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So I can't tell you. I am sorry. I am in distress. There's lots of discretion regarding the prices.
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It's not a fiscal discretion. We just don't want to announce a price only for it to go up afterwards and have a person think he'd have been better off buying it earlier, or that you might accept a lower offer
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just to close the deal. So prices aren't really mentioned in the art market. There are discussions and bargaining with prices higher and lower depending on the period.
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So it's very hard to give a price. Art dealers don't like to give prices and don't publicize
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them in the community. According to inside information, these works are worth several million dollars.
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An art gallery with a view of the Louvre. Quite a showcase. There you are.
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But Yves Bouvier's good fortune is today soured by a series of lawsuits. In May 2015, an article about him appeared in Looper, entitled Zaia the Billionaire and the Cursed Picassos.
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It was a look into some of the darker practices of the a...
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It was a look into some of the darker practices of the art market. The allegations made by Lupa were such that the magazine was found guilty of infringement of privacy.
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The hard hitting article tells of a violent clash between Bouvier and one of the richest men on the planet.
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A Russian, Dmitry Rybolovlev, seen here in this photo taken in his living room in Monaco.
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The story goes back to 2003 when Yves Bouvier met the Russian billionaire, a close friend of Prince Albert.
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He's the owner of the soccer club AS Monaco, Bouvier and Rybolovlev hit it off immediately.
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Here they are at a costume party on the billionaire's private Greek island. For ten years, Yves Bouvier helped his friend put together an exceptional collection of paintings and sculptures as compiled in this catalog.
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He acquired works by Modigliani. Gauguin Renoir. And even Leonardo da Vinci. Plus some Picasso's.
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In all, 38 works for the mind boggling sum of just over $1,000,000,800 million. But their friendship would come to a brutal end during a meeting in Monaco in February 2015.
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Yves Bouvier attorney David Beeton explains. How? The story started in the rather violent and unexpected way.
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Yves Bouvier arrived in Monaco for what he thought was going to be a commercial meeting with his client of several years, Mr. Dimitri RYBOLOVLEV.
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Rybolovlev. And as it was described in the press, he walked into a trap. Because on reaching Mr. Rybolovlev his home, instead of being greeted by his bodyguards, the Monaco police were waiting for him.
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They arrested him and detained him for the whole weekend. And. The Russian billionaire had filed charges against Yves Bouvier.
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He accused him of making exorbitant profits of $1,000,000,000 at his own personal loss. Rybolovlev claimed to have paid double what his collection was worth.
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Take, for example, this painting, number six by Mark Rothko. We managed to get a hold of the documents of the transaction.
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Eve Bouvier bought it from wealthy landowners in the Bordeaux region for $83,500,000. A few weeks later, as this invoice shows, the painting was sold to an offshore company Accent Delight, which belongs to the Russian billionaire.
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Acquired for $83.5 million. The Rothko was sold for $140 million. Eve Bouvier profit on the deal.
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Almost $70 million. With this Picasso flute player with naked woman, the prophet was even more staggering.
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Purchased on October 7th, 2010 for three and a half million dollars. It was sold on to Dmitri Rybolovlev the very next day for $25 million.
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A profit of $21 Million in 24 hours. Eve Bouvier. Profits were colossal, but his attorney sweeps the accusations aside.
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He believes there was nothing illegal in his clients profits and that the Russian billionaire should have been shrewder.
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From a judiciary and legal point of view. The case is sophisticated, but basically Rybolovlev said to Yves Bouvier, "my friend, you sold me paintings and other artworks of incontestable quality".
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But I think that the margins you took are far too high in regard to what I believed our relationship to be.
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So it's a trial concerning the enriching of Yves Bouvier, which has no legal grounding.
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We tried to contact the Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev. He preferred not to comment. If Bouvier was indicted in Monaco in February 2015 for fraud and complicity in money laundering.
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The investigation is still ongoing. But in the Rybolovlev collection, there were two other paintings that would cause trouble.
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In September 2015, the billionaire posed with these two gashes, which, like the rest of his collection, he bought from Yves Bouvier.
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The Russian is beaming with joy. He thought he had done good business with these two portraits of Jacqueline Picasso's last wife, Spanish woman with a fan and woman arranging her hair.
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But an unexpected figure came along to spoil the party. Catherine Newton, one of Picasso's heiresses, Jacqueline's daughter.
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She filed a complaint for theft and suspected Eve Bouvier of being involved in the fencing of the two paintings sold to Rybolovlev, along with 58 drawings.
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A judge in Paris issued an international warrant for his arrest. The art dealer was suddenly being sought by police forces all over the world.
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Here is Catherine with Pablo Picasso and her mother. Back then, they lived in the south of France, on the hill of Mousa in an old farmhouse called Notre-Dame de Vie.
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Picasso lived and painted there for 20 years or so. In the 14th District of Paris, we're going to meet Pepita du Pont.
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This former journalist was Jacqueline Picasso's confidante. She wrote about their relationship in a book, and she witnessed the scale of the artist's work.
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Pablo worked all the time. Cocteau described him as a standing man. He never, ever stopped.
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I often said to Jacqueline, It's not possible. I always got the impression, even though he was no longer there, that every time I arrived at Notre Dame de Vie, there were new works because there were so many of them.
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It just wasn't human. On the artist's death in 1973. Then on Jacqueline's death, 13 years later, almost 2000 paintings, 7000 drawings, and 1200 sculptures were officially recorded.
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In order to pay the inheritance duties. Part of the work was given to the state, something known as payment in lieu.
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Voila. This is the payment in lieu, after Jacqueline Picasso's death, her daughter, Catherine Newton, gave all this to France.
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Instead of paying inheritance duties. And how many works were there? 47 paintings, loads of drawings, 24 sketchbooks, 245 etchings, 19 ceramics and a collage by George Braque.
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So everything else belongs to Madame Utan. Right. Personally. There are 47 paintings here at Jacqueline's house.
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I saw hundreds and hundreds. I couldn't give you an exact figure. I'm not an accountant.
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I really couldn't say. Picasso's body of work was enormous. Some of his works went unrecorded after the painter died.
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They were probably hidden away during the inventory for the inheritance. That is what this report suggests by the director of the Picasso administration who represents the family's interests.
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It is likely that certain works escaped the inventory as they had been hidden by Jacqueline.
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This is thought to be the case for the two disputed paintings. Accused of being involved in the theft of the two portraits.
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Yves Bouvier defends himself and declares that he did indeed pay Catherine. Her lawyers apparently asked him to pay money not directly to the Picasso heiress, but to a trust fund, an offshore company based in a tax haven.
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I received the banking details of the trust in Liechtenstein from the law firm in Geneva called FBT, which is madame Newton's law firm, having already done business with them.
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I was certain it was them. Nobody doubts. That the. So my company in Liechtenstein paid the money into the trust fund.
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The trust. To prove his claims, he shows us this document, which is apparently the receipt for payment for the two portraits.
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My Invest Bouvier Company paid $8 Million to Nobility Trust based at the Central Bank in Vaduz, capital of Liechtenstein.
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The name of Catherine doesn't appear. But investigators discovered that nobody lo trust belonged to a certain Katherine Bley living at Rue George Black in Paris.
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The address was no longer her residential address, but Blair was none other than the married name of Katherine.
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Behind the offshore company, it was indeed the Picasso heiress who received the payment from Yves Bouvier.
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And in front of our camera, the art dealer went even further. So it's a sophisticated scam for tax fraud.
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When you own a shell company that acts as a cover and you use your married name when it isn't actually your current name and an address that isn't your residential address, when you give that kind of information in Liechtenstein
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or in Switzerland, it's already a faking of titles. That's the first qualification. After that, when you benefit from other people's help to set up the system, it becomes organized crime when you play cash ping pong between one company and another,
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it's money laundering or tax fraud. Eve Bouvier had to pay several million dollars in bail to have his international arrest warrant lifted and still facing an indictment for fencing stolen goods, the art dealer has made new accusations regarding the Picasso heiress financial scams.
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Investor I bought a work of art by Picasso at Sotheby's. Painter And his model, Madame Utan, wanted the work because the model was certainly her mother.
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So I sold it to Madame Hutton's company. For $170,000. Eve Bouvier sold this Picasso drawing painter and his model to Catherine Newton.
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Once again, no mention of her name. The money was paid to an offshore company in Panama, this time Alpha male while the drawing turned up at the Geneva Freeport.
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I sold the work to Madame Utans Company, El Mayo, a Panamanian company. Then I delivered the work to her lawyer at the Geneva Freeport.
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Madam Mehta has her own storeroom there. Yes, she has. It is rented by her lawyers.
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And you personally deposited the work at the Freeport? No, no. It travelled from Sotheby's in London to Geneva and was placed in Madame Hilton's storeroom at the Freeport, which is managed by her lawyers.
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And do you know what's inside? No, I've never been in there. We contacted Kathryn Newton's lawyer for a response to Yves Bouvier.
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Serious accusations. Here is her reply. Madame Mouton does not wish to communicate or to participate in any sort of broadcast.
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Locked away secrets and shady financial setups are nightmares for French tax inspectors and customs officers.
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We questioned a customs investigator, a specialist in fraud and the trafficking of cultural assets.
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Faced with such scams, he recognizes his powerlessness. So you set up a shell company, which is fairly easy to do.
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You register its address somewhere far away from the eyes of the French administration. You export the object to a Freeport.
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You do the deal. And the financial product from the transaction as it's linked to Company X, registered in some friendly country, disappears totally from the eyes of our administration, whereas the beneficiary of the operation is indeed a resident of our country
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and should pay tax. But with the Freeport they won't. We meet up again with Yves Bouvier with all of his indictments.
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He's earned a shady reputation. But after 30 years in the business, he's as tough as nails.
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Every year in May, he heads to Basel in Switzerland for the biggest art fair in the world.
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Art Basel. He flies in a private jet for which he pays $50,000 a year.
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Despite his tangles with the law he wants to be in the right places. Basel Art Basel is the biggest annual art fair in the world, especially for 20th century and contemporary art.
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And to be there is a must. And you add with all the dealers and people in the art world meet in Basel during those four days.
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It'll be interesting for us to see how you get along with the other dealers.
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I have lots of good relationships with other dealers. The only thing is with your camera there, they might be a little bit shy.
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Why is that? Regarding my personal situation, they certainly won't want to be seen on film with me.
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So they'll avoid you like the plague? No. Because if no one's around, we'll go for a coffee, have a chat, slap each other on the back.
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But with a camera there, they'll avoid me because they don't want people to know they're friends with me.
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And yet, barely off his private jet, we soon see that his controversial reputation causes fewer problems than predicted.
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There you are. Mr. Lorenzo, how are you? Just fine. How are you? His first appointment is with one of the art fairs, founders, Lorenzo Rudolph.
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Both men have businesses in Singapore and are good friends with me. I've had half of my bank accounts in the world closed in general conditions.
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But UBS, which I've been with since I was a kid, say I'm no longer welcome, but politely.
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They just closed the account and cancelled my credit card. I've had 50 bank accounts closed down.
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So that's it. When you're in trouble, people clear off at lightning speed. There's no feeling in this business.
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Absolutely. I know that. Look. It's a lion pit. And if they could, they don't wash their hands of you.
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Oh yes. 4000 artists exhibit their works at Art Basel. It attracts the general public, but more importantly, the biggest players on the international art market.
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Thank you. Gallery owners, collectors and curators of the world's museums. Accompanied by his art consultant, 16.
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Eve Bouvier is here to check out the new trends. Most of the works on show come from the storerooms of the Geneva Freeport some 250 kilometers away.
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Yve Bouvier is here to show his fellow professionals that he's still in the game and is still to be taken seriously.
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How are you? Oh, great. My business is booming, too. So pleased to see you.
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Same here. How are you doing? Wonderful. Great. Oh, help me. Help me up. Yes. How are you? Thank you.
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Hey. Hey. How are you? Great to see you. I'm fine. Bye. Good luck with the jungle.
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Thanks. But at one stand, one man goes out of his way to ignore Eve Bouvier.
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You work too much. Is it the stock exchange? The man on his cell phone is David Nahmad.
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Not the one that's. Clearly troubled by our camera. If Bouvier quickly calls his assistant to go reassure him.
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Just when you see David Nahmad alone, tell him not to worry. I won't let them use any footage of him.
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But he has no rights regarding our footage. It's just I saw him flee the camera, and I don't want him to worry.
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David Nahmad isn't just anyone. He's the man with 300 Picassos. The head of one of the most powerful families in the art world, the Nomad's renowned dealers.
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Here's their stand at Art Basel mobiles by Calder. Miro's Fontana's Picasso's. And also a Roy Lichtenstein and a Jean Dubuffet.
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All of them stars of modern art. The Nahmad collection is valued at almost $3 billion thousands of works, most of which are stored at the Geneva Freeport.
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Maybe the reason David Nahmad prefers to be discreet is because one of the paintings he owns is causing him problems with the law.
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The story started here in the Paris archives in 2011 with this man, James Palmer.
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He is a Canadian private detective who specializes in finding art looted from Jews by the Nazis.
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One day, while rummaging in the Paris archives, he came across a file on a certain Stettner, a Jewish antiques dealer.
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The man was dispossessed of all his assets during World War Two. After the liberation of Paris, he filed a claim to recuperate his patrimony.
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The documentation is contained in this box. It was here in the Paris archives that we found a document that referred to the quest of Mr. Oscar Stettner for his stolen painting.
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The information that we found was that Oskar Stettner had been despoiled of a number of personal items, a carpet, for example, a portrait of him as a young man, and also a painting by Modigliani and an important painting
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that was looted from Mr. Stettner during the war. The Canadian detective began his investigation.
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He discovered that the antiques dealer Stettner had made his claim for restitution in 1946, but well before the liberation, the painting had already been sold by the Vichy authorities.
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For the sum of 16,000 francs. Since then, it disappeared. Particularly because its description is so vague.
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The document only indicated that it was a painting signed by Modigliani, Portrait of a man.
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The detective had no idea what the painting looked like. He had to find a photo of it at all costs.
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By consulting papers kept in the Paris archives,. James Palmer came across a clue. This telegram.
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It states that Stettner had sent the Modigliani to the Venice Biennaleof 1930. I traveled to Venice personally and went into the archives there and to the Venice Biennale archives.
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I saw Mr. Stanton painting in a photograph. James Palmer was delighted. He'd found it.
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This photo, taken at the 1930 Venice Biennale, shows 12 paintings on the wall of the room dedicated to Modigliani.
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Ten portraits of women and two of men. The one on the right was already identified and well known.
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The painting in the middle, however, the one of a seated man is more mysterious.
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So now you've got reference to Mr. Stettner owning the painting. You've got reference to Portrait of a Man, and you have a photograph that's the exact same painting that is now illustrated or described as the seated man.
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Finally, James Palmer knew what the painting looked like. But where had it gone? He searched everywhere, activated his contacts, toured the auction rooms, archives and museums.
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And after a few weeks, bingo, he found a trace of the painting here in London in the catalog of an auction held at Christie's in 1996.
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The painting was entitled Seated Man with a Cane. But who owned it? It was acquired by a shell company based in Panama International Art Center, whose registration document is seen here.
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Its rightful owner is unnamed. Yet Palmer refused to give up and finally discovered another lead to finding the true owners.
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Over the years, the work appeared in a number of catalogs. And every time, alongside the name of one of the most prestigious galleries in the world, the Helly Nahmad Gallery in New York, run by the daughter of the family patriarch
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we ran into at Art Basel. James Palmer decided to write to her. Well, the lawyers for our client contacted the Helena Gallery and Helen him out of New York.
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All right. And they were ignored. Which is not right. It's not proper. So I think after about a month or so, they wrote him again and again they were ignored.
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And eventually there was a response. And the response was essentially, you're suing the wrong people.
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You should be suing the International Art Center. And we have nothing to do with that.
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James Palmer was not taken in by her response. He filed a lawsuit against the Helena Art Gallery in New York.
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But once again, the lawyers denied that the family were the owners of the painting.
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Here is their statement to the court in New York. It's International Art Center and nobody else, not the Helly Nahmad Gallery, nor David Nahmad that bought the painting at an auction held at Christie's.
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Things stopped dead there until 2015 and the leaking of the Panama Papers. Extraordinary. A document published by the journalists revealed that behind the Panamanian company, International Art Center was the renowned art dealer, David Nahmad.
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So he was a shareholder of the company that owns the Modigliani painting, despite his constant denials.
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The detective had scored a point. Now. He just had to find out where Modigliani's seated man was in storage.
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He had a bright idea. Maybe it was in the Geneva Freeport, where the Nahmad family kept the major part of its collection.
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The Swiss judiciary issued a search warrant for the Nahmad store rooms in April 2016 and discovered the Holy Grail, the much sought after painting.
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It's hard to say if it was hidden or not, but it was kept very discreetly in the free port where there are.
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The Nomad family are estimated to have about 3 to $4 billion worth of art, or about four and one half thousand works of art.
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And their little room in the free port. The painting claimed to have been looted, was well and truly in the Nahmad store room in the Freeport, a revelation that caused an uproar.
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The heirs of the antique dealer Stettner have now filed a claim for the restitution of the painting.
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We contacted the NEUMANNS. After several attempts, they finally agreed to open up their store room at the Geneva Freeport and to show us the painting in an exhibition room.
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We would never meet the art dealers themselves, but they did accord us an exclusive viewing of the painting, a very solemn moment.
Speaker A
The work was handled with great precaution. It is estimated at about $20 Million today.
Speaker A
The family's Swiss lawyer would tell us their version of the story. Now the painting itself doesn't pose a problem.
Speaker A
It's the fact that within the framework of the American court case, it's impossible to affirm that the painting belongs to the Nahmad family because they're only the indirect owners.
Speaker A
Juridique legally, it belongs to International Art Center, of which they are shareholders. And that's something that's well known throughout the art dealing world.
Speaker A
Du Marché de La. To clear his clients even further. The lawyer even raises doubts that the painting ever belonged to the Jewish antiques dealer Stettner.
Speaker A
Because Mr. Stettner was a dealer. So it is possible that he was the owner, but that he sold it at the Venice Biennale.
Speaker A
In which case that would prove that his descendants claim is false. Is explication the sun?
Speaker A
Well, another possibility is that as a dealer, he exhibited the painting on behalf of one of his clients who wished to remain anonymous.
Speaker A
And this is yet to be disproved by the opposing party. We had only a few minutes to film the painting, but as the handlers turned the work around, we happen to film something on the back that we only noticed later.
Speaker A
This label from the 1930 Venice Biennale, the owner's name, had been crudely erased. And it looks like that of Stettner.
Speaker A
A clue to which the detective never had access and which could be crucial for the next stage of his investigation.
Speaker A
The Canadian detective is convinced the Geneva Freeport could be housing other works of dubious origin.
Speaker A
Well, I think there's a high probability that many other paintings in the Freeport were probably looted and probably rest there today that have not seen the light of day for many decades.
Speaker A
And I believe they're there. And I think that it would be very interesting if the public were made aware or at least the art industry were made aware of what those paintings are.
Speaker A
So that, you know, if the prosecutor's office of Switzerland, for example, were to provide us with information on all those paintings, we could pretty quickly tell them which ones were stolen, pretty quickly.
Speaker A
For the Swiss art dealers lawyer. There's no point in dreaming. No one will know for years what's really stored in the Freeport.
Speaker A
There's no inventory. You'll never obtain an inventory of all the works in the Freeport.
Speaker A
It's top secret. And how many? 300. 3000. 300,000. So it's a commercial secret? Yes absolutely.
Speaker A
Our French customs investigator is of the same opinion. Even if he's on the other side of the fence.
Speaker A
Freeports, notably Geneva, are old friends of French customs. A huge amount of assets enter and leave the free port.
Speaker A
And the secret dream of all customs officers is to find out what's really inside, who it belongs to and the sum of the deals done.
Speaker A
They don't want us to know who's selling what to whom. That's where the free port comes in.
Speaker A
It covers up deals which are naturally discreet, commercially discreet, but also discreet because they concern fraud.
Speaker A
In Geneva, the Modigliani case hit the headlines. The Freeport authorities quickly became concerned about bad publicity.
Speaker A
So in June 2016, they called an emergency press conference. All representatives of the main Swiss medias were invited.
Speaker A
Simply won't be. Can we get started? On the floor where the president of the Geneva Freeport and his general secretary.
Speaker A
Both men seemed self conscious, rejecting all responsibility regarding the supposed owner of the painting.
Speaker A
David Nahmad. Mentee said. Even if his claims to ownership seem to be legally correct, they are nonetheless dubious and merely add to the hubbub surrounding this case.
Speaker A
Bloomberg Ownership of the painting was hidden. That's clear. It's not the only one, but at least we, and the American judiciary know where the work actually is.
Speaker A
American said. So all that really bothers people is the term hidden will appropriate? Yes, the work was hidden, but it is deposited and it will be restored to whoever the judiciary decides.
Speaker A
This is all. But what other secrets are really hidden in the Freeport in Switzerland?
Speaker A
Some official authorities have become extremely concerned. We managed to obtain this report from the Swiss Federal Audit Office.
Speaker A
It unequivocally denounces the opaqueness of the Geneva Freeport. Irregularities regarding inventories and absence of traceability of merchandise, errors in stock accountancy and recurrent problems which occur during controls.
Speaker A
Our French customs officer includes laxity on the part of the Swiss administrators that oversee business conducted in the Freeport.
Speaker A
See in a French logistics zone like quasi Charles de Gaulle Airport, administrators can visit and circulate freely.
Speaker A
They have up to date information on what comes in, what stocked, what goes out and can even intervene during the storage process in Geneva.
Speaker A
It's the opposite. Less info on what goes in and out and on what's inside.
Speaker A
That includes the Swiss authorities. They see the free port as being outside of their territory.
Speaker A
Isn't extraterritorial. It's in their country. At the same time, it isn't. So secrets are kept, which is what the art dealers want, but also what the fraudsters want.
Speaker A
In response to widespread criticism, the recently appointed president of the Geneva Freeport, a magistrate known for his integrity, is supposedly fighting the good fight, calling for much stricter regulations.
Speaker A
As it stands, federal legislation demands that the owner be named but not the financial beneficiary.
Speaker A
What we want is an extra space on the customs form to be filled out, specifically indicating the name of the financial beneficiary.
Speaker A
That's not the case yet. No, of course it isn't. But we hope that things will change.
Speaker A
And in time they always do very slowly in Switzerland for sure, but no slower than in countries that aim a lot of criticism at us.
Speaker A
This man is aware that there is still a long way to go. But having agreed to make concessions on its banking secrecy, will Switzerland also finally agree to open the doors of the world's biggest safe?
Topics:Geneva FreeportYves Bouvierart storageart marketart secrecyart logisticsart controversiesart dealersart valuationart laundering
