ALEXANDRA_BREGMAN ANONYMOUS_DEDECTIVE ANTOINE_HARARI DIRECTOR DONALD_TRUMP EZRA_CHOWAIKI FREEPORT_WORKER GRAHAM_BOWLEY KELLY_CROW MIKHAIL_SAZONOV OLIVIER_BULLOUGH ROBERT_WITTMAN SANDRINE_GIROUD SERGE_MICHEL SIXTINE_CRUTCHFIELD TETIANA_BERSHEDA TOMAS ZOE_SALZMAN� EZRA CHOWAIKI Someone called me and said, did you hear about Bouvier? And I was like, what happened? It's crazy. The Russian got angry and arrested him. And I was like, what? What? SANDRINE GIROUD He lied to get money behind the back of his client. And that's simply fraud. SIXTINE CRUTCHFIELD Ok, Yves maybe put on a little few zeros too many on the side, but he did nothing wrong. OLIVIER BULLOUGH The Bouvier-Rybolovlev dispute Is a rare opportunity to see the inner workings of Money Land. Normally we don't hear about it. Or even knows it's happenning. KELLY CROW Almost a buddy movie gone wrong. Both men could have shaken their hands and walked away. But no It's not a happy ending for these guys. ROBERT WITTMAN You should never piss off a rich guy. Because they take it personally. And what they do is they come after you, until the very end.� � GRAHAM BOWLEY At the trial in New York we see a parade of artworld players. Of course we were all waiting for Mr. Rybolovlev to testify. He spoke very quietly throughout in Russian. About the friendship and as he saw it, the betrayal. ZOE SALZMAN Trust was always at the heart of this case. Mr.Rybolovlev is someone who believes very deeply in trust. He believed in trusting the people he worked with. This is very personal to him. This case was always about telling Mr. Rybolovlev's story. � ALEXANDRA BREGMAN Rybolovlevs lawyer TETIANA BERSHEDA orchestrated a massive paperwork behemoth. They pulled all the documents and said, this is what we paid, This is what you paid. They started really escalating that question of How much did you pay for that? Where did the money go? And they started targeting Bouvier around the world. It was takedown time. EZRA CHOWAIKI A few days later, I was at the Armory Show here in New York. Everyone was talking about this arrest. People were really freaking out. I immediately called Yves And asked him if he was okay He was really nervous and really tense. � DIRECTOR Can you explain why You started the attacks against Mr. Bouvier? TETIANA BERSHEDA I have to say that all the questions I'm given in this interview are subject to legal privileges. I can only answer them to the extent, I'm not infringing on these obligations. What I can say is that I have never been instructed to take any actions which should be qualified or could be qualified as some kind of revenge or punishment. Hong Kong, New York and in Monaco. TETIANA BERSHEDA When you have a dispute of this kind, there are a number of ancillary proceedures and any lawyer in my position would be using them. to the other, all your assets are frozen. Your life changes completely. TETIANA BERSHEDA It is a high profile international litigation, with very high stakes. All these means are used by all litigation lawyers. SIXTINE CRUTCHFIELD So yeah, Freeports were stopped. All those parties and all those fairs were stopped. And that's it, he was just with lawyers all the time. � SANDRINE GIROUD Mr. Bouvier pretends that he is a victim. What is interesting about this type of personality is that it's all about them. They need to explain themselves. They need to tell the story until people believe them. And now he needs the world to believe his story. I think it is important to remember that he. stole 1 billion. � SANDRINE GIROUD Bouvier's financial situation is quite opaque to say the least. we are not the only one trying to identify Mr. Bouvier's assets. I mean, he is the subject also to tax proceedings in Switzerland. SERGE MICHEL Ezra Yves became a pariah in the art business. People would not deal with him anymore. TOMAS EYMOND-LARITAZ My name is TOMAS EYMOND-LARITAZ, I'm the founder and CEO of Highgate. I'm advising political and corporate leaders, through the world. DIRECTOR A Crisis Manager? What is it? TOMAS EYMOND-LARITAZ Once the shit has hit the fan, usually people call on us. From a communication perspective, Rybolovlev completely knocked out Bouvier. Completely. TOMAS EYMOND-LARITAZ Everybody received informatio from Rybolovlev's camp and this information was not really challenged. ALEXANDRA BREGMAN Bouvier saw this happening and he saw what it was doing to his reputation. And he started playing, too. MIKHAIL SAZONOV Bouvier extracted the maximum from the public stereotypes. ALEXANDRA BREGMAN How sympathetic is a Russian oligarch, really? Especially today? MIKHAIL SAZONOV Mafioso Russian oligarchs. And honest Swiss businessman. � DONALD TRUMP I paid 40 million and I sold it for 100 million and I sold it to a Russian. ANONYMOUS DEDECTIVE It's a tricksters environment. Detectives that do dark PR. � ANTOINE HARARI It was a war that went both ways. It was a dirty war where every everyone was ready to do anything in order to kill the reputation of their opponent. TOMAS EYMOND-LARITAZ There were actually some other very serious side benefits that Rybolovlev could have by attacking Yves. First thing... He had been condemned to pay more than 4 billion dollars to his ex-wife... If he were to say: Oh, I overpaid this collection . Then he didn't need to give so much money to his ex-wife. � TOMAS EYMOND-LARITAZ I don't have the proof, that Rybolovlev wanted to take over Bouvier's freeports but that makes just perfect sense! SANDRINE GIROUD The extent of Mr.Bouvier's imagination is just really fascinating! There is a lot of fiction that you can project on a Russian Oligarch, and Bouvier is trying to tell many different stories. EZRA CHOWAIKI One of the weirdest elements of this whole story, is how Rybolovlev started to sell off his collection. MIKHAIL SAZONOV He didn't like the feeling of having been made a fool of, every time he looks at the paintings. KELLY CROW I was told by people in his camp that the prices which he felt like he had overpaid,had soured him on the pictures. � KELLY CROW He puts the Magritte up for sale, and it sells for like. If you look at the first handful of pictures, he easily lost 100 million on these deals. So certainly he was getting madder and madder, because it was proving that he had been overcharged. � SIXTINE CRUTCHFIELD Art fairs wouldn't give him his VIP cards anymore. Banks refused to hold his money. The thing is, you need to be there. You need to be seen in the art world. Yves whole surrounding was stopped in their tracks as well. His dad started Natural le Coultre,and now sees his son lose it. Can't be easy. � DIRECTOR All your freeports as well? � SIXTINE CRUTCHFIELD It must have hurt. They never showed it, but it must have hurt. DIRECTOR Why didn't they show? SIXTINE CRUTCHFIELD Because they don't. You don't do that here. ANTOINE HARARI On both sides, it's very aggressive, very personal. And the only explanation, at least on the Rybolovlev side, is pride. It's the rage of finding out that you've been duped. Mr. Bouvier. KELLY CROW There's any number of moves that they could've done to de-escalate it, but they didn't. Dimitry's collection was selling for less, and the piece de resistance was going to be the Da Vinci. He thought Man, I'll put this Da Vinci up on the market..for 100 million, even though I paid nearly 130 for it. There was a lot of scoffing about whether or not he would even hit that number. I was hearing numbers from as low as 60, maybe 80. I remember the day I'm called into Christies, Im being told there's going to be a big announcement. And when the doors open they're like, we're selling this. And bing in my inbox, comes this email from the family office of Dimitri Rybolovlev. And they're like; We just want to tell you that we're selling this picture and we're doing it because we're really mad. Great. I got on the front page. CHRISTIE�S ANOUCER Welcome to Rockefeller Cente here in New York. ALEXANDRA BREGMAN There was no reason to sell it at auction. Unless they wanted an audience. They could have done it in private sales. They could have passed it between each other in these little vaults. No. The public needed to know. Actually, I think you guys need to see how much I unknowingly overpaid. CHRISTIE�S ANOUCER 95 and I go one turn over here. 110. I have it. Going over here to take 125. Last chance? 125 then. 130? 130 with Louie. 140 million? KELLY CROW When the bids crossed 140, 150 million at that point, I thought, oh darn it, man. Dimitri's whole case, just blew up in his face. CHRISTIE�S ANOUCER At 180 million ladies and gentlemen. KELLY CROW He couldn't make the case that h had been overcharged. CHRISTIE�S ANOUCER 200 million is bid. 200 million is here. 235 million going on. At 280 million dollars, are we all done? Maybe not. Don't take the photograph quite yet. KELLY CROW It's a sale I'll never forget. Everyone watching the bids climb. CHRISTIE�S ANOUCER Would you like 350? I'll take. KELLY CROW If getting rid of this one was going to ultimately prove the point that Yves had overcharged him. It just totally inverted into this whole strange other story. CHRISTIE�S ANOUCER 350. You may not have heard it, the bid was 350 was called on the telephone. At 350 million! For Leonardo's Salvator Mundi. The conversation continues 352 million? 352 million is bid. 400. 400 million!? Selling here, at Christie's, 400 million dollars is the bid. And the piece is sold! ANTOINE HARARI If you sell the Salvator Mundi for 450M. when you were ripped off of 45M. Were you actually ripped off? What is the real worth of a painting? Nobody really knows, right? � TETIANA BERSHEDA I made that recording solely for the purpose of the then ongoing criminal investigation, and the only use I made of that recording, was to give it to the authorities. Most of the judges in Monaco are French judges. Judge Levrault was one of those French judges arriving in Monaco. Personally, I didn't pay much attention to his arrival.I was called for questioning by the judge Levrault. And one of the issues he questioned me about was whether I somehow manipulated that recording. TETIANA BERSHEDA I know that recording a private conversation in Switzerland without the consent of all the participants is a criminal offence. Having checked it under Monaco law, I understood that no such offence existed in Monaco. So when I was asked by the judge Levrault, to hand over my phone My immediate reaction was to give it for the sake of establishing the truth. � DIRECTOR How was your reaction when you found out about the phone? TETIANA BERSHEDA I think I couldn't sleep for at least a few nights.I was in touch with different lawyers, to understand the investigation carried out by Judge Levrault with my phone. I felt profound injustice. I couldn't understand how something like this could have happened. � TETIANA BERSHEDA What happened with my phone. All the safeguards and guarantees attached to the professional secrecy of a lawyer were completely ignored by Judge Levrault. And in those circumstances there was no other choice than to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights Pascal Henry OLIVIER BULLOUGH There is a segment of society who are so rich that they don't have to obey the rules anymore, Really, what do we have? What's our secret ingredient? Our secret ingredient is democracy. And we have the rule of law, and we can vote. We can decide our own destinies. That's the point. Corruption destroys that. MIKHAIL SAZONOV Quite early Mr. Rybolovlev told me that he had agreed with Bouvier that he would act as our agent, in Russian sagient, and he would receive a 2% renumeration on each deal closed. SANDRINE GIROUD In the end with this 2%, Bouvier received approximately 35 million Swiss francs, which I think is a fair price. DIRECTOR Did you make a contract with Bouvier that stated the 2%? MIKHAIL SAZONOV No, there was no written contract. It was an oral agreement. SANDRINE GIROUD You don't need a written contract to establish what the contract is. You can have people shaking hands and that's sufficient. GRAHAM BOWLEY After the case in Monaco All the other criminal complaints against Mr. Bouvier had been dismissed around the world. Which is a big deal. ROBERT WITTMAN It's an interesting fact that Yves Bouvier has not been convicted of anything, anywhere. And if you say that he is a criminal.That's defamation. He could sue you for that. I'm not making a judgement on Bouvier he's not convicted. MIKHAIL SAZONOV I could not take it anymore. And Mr. Rybolovlev did not think that I was doing a good job anymore. So it was more or less. Okay, well: I think I should be going. He said: Yes, I also think you should be going. � SIXTINE CRUTCHFIELD The problem is.If Rybolovlev wants to strike, he will. He's got much more money than Yves. It's going to be complicated to live with that on your back all the time. It shows physically. He's not the same person. KELLY CROW Why do these two men for all their wealth, for all their connections keep dog fighting like this. I think that's where we go to Shakespeare. That's where we go to the heart of human nature and how pride and lust and greed can kind of curdle into this stew that's pretty toxic. TOMAS EYMOND-LARITAZ Yves was proposing a settlement, and a deal from day one. It's like in a military conflict. You don't negotiate When you actually believe that you're winning the battles. But the moment you realise you don't have a lot of ammunition left. Maybe i will reach a settlement. And so we reached a point where the two parties found that it was in their own best interest to reach an agreement. � DIRECTOR Can you explain what you can or cannot say under this agreement? � DIRECTOR What's in that settlement? TOMAS EYMOND-LARITAZ There's a confidentiality clause. DIRECTOR Who pays who? TOMAS EYMOND-LARITAZ I cannot comment. GRAHAM BOWLEY The battle had ranged around the world. Finally it comes to open court, in New York. And the current practises of the art world are on trial. KELLY CROW Rybolovlev is accusing Sotheby's of being complicit in the biggest art fraud in history. GRAHAM BOWLEY Mr. Bouvier is not part of the case, but mentioned everyday. KELLY CROW He didn't come over to the States to watch it, and he didn't testify. ALEXANDRA BREGMAN For Rybolovlev, whether he wins or loses, the story is worth the most to him. He wants people to know Bouvier's name in the negative. KELLY CROW And so.. he has been perpetually dragged through the mud throughout this case, with no recourse. DIRECTOR Would you agree with the statement: That Bouvier's special relationship with Sothebys also allowed him to manipulate the partners involved? KELLY CROW Dmitry Rybolovlev finished his testimony today and the drama moment of the whole day was, get this, I actually saw a Russian oligarch cry. He said he lets very few people into his circle of trust. He starts talking about how.. Once he does trust them, he trust them like family. And it may just have been an Oscar worthy moment, where he got kind of overwhelmed. But he did seem moved. And broken up. It was sort of a very human moment. We will see what the jury thinks. ZOE SALZMAN This market is so secretive. All these private sales, all these deals are shrouded in secrecy. It is, in fact, anathema to an auction house like Sotheby To have information like this revealed to the public eye. This trial has shone a spotlight on this world. ALEXANDRA BREGMAN On the one hand, nothing has changed because Bouvier is not guilty. Sotheby's not guilty. Business as usual goes on. Yet the public consciousness, The way that people think about art dealers and art auction houses. Has irrevocably changed. KELLY CROW This case brought up all these artworks, that the public never got a shot at seeing. I enjoyed getting to see some of those pictures in that courtroom. I mean, say what you will. Bouvier amassed a beautiful collection for this one Russian collector. And he wasn't showing the world any of it until he got mad. OLIVIER BULLOUGH How did Bouvier structure these deals so no one knew what was happening? Who were all his other clients? Where's all the other money gone? Maybe we'll never know. But the same mechanisms to evade, responsibility, taxes and scrutiny, apply everywhere else. It's growing all the time. It's mutating. And that's a real problem. How do you even live in a democracy anymore? You don't. You live in Money Land. MIKHAIL SAZONOV It's very rare that you can separate the good and the evil right? Dimitry Rybolovlev is definitely not a saint, but Bouvier. He is a crook, and a person completely devoid of any moral understanding. So he's going to do whatever he pleases, because How could he do otherwise? DIRECTOR Last question if you had the opportunity to redo everything, would you do it? � SANDRINE GIROUD Mr. Bouvier stole 1 billion. Pretending that what he did is legal. How could that happen? SERGE MICHEL Bouvier, in the years he was selling the paintings to Rybolovlev, he is, in the race of his life. ALEXANDRA BREGMAN He was galvanized to continue building his empire with the funds that Rybolovlev was providing. SIXTINE CRUTCHFIELD He sees big. He has a vision which is huge, much bigger than anybody else I know. OLIVIER BULLOUGH Freeports are a place where you can put your art or your gold. In a completely untraceable way. Totally immune from tax authorities. It's so good. ANTOINE HARARI With the Klimt. Bouvier's game was close to being revealed. Now the question is: When will Rybolovlev find out? And what will happen when he does? � ZOE SALZMAN In fraud cases, there is rarely a whistleblower witness or a smoking gun document that lays out the whole scheme. Fraud is, by its nature, secretive and concealed. So our legal work is putting together the pieces of a puzzle. Like a jigsaw puzzle. ROBERT WITTMAN Ultimately whenever something is wrong, there's going to be a mistake somewhere And when that happens, it'll all come out. You just have to wait sometimes. My name is. I was the senior investigator at the FBI national art crime team, and also the founder of the team. Ultimately, when we talk about art crime. It is not about the fabulous nature of fine art. It's about the business of art. It's how you do a deal. I've seen this type of operation many times. In cases in the past, Where individuals are representing that they're working very hard for their client. And basically they are doing nothing it's all lies. They are simply just duping them. And making twice the money. DIRECTOR Is Yves Bouvier a fraudster? � DIRECTOR Are you an impostor? � KELLY CROW So I think it's also really helpful to take a closer look at another work that has become a huge part of this case. Rene Magrittes Domaine D'Arnheim . GRAHAM BOWLEY Which Mr. Rybolovlev had seen years earlier. And he told Mr. Bouvier that he really wanted this piece of work. KELLY CROW It doesn't shout Magritte. It's not you know, one of these classic surrealism images. But it's a very well known series. It looks like the ledge of a wall with two legs. And if you look like right on the horizon line, you see this like profile of a little eagle. GRAHAM BOWLEY Sotheby's had valued this work of art at 1.2 million a few years earlier. It's owned by a Belgian family. They tell Sotheby's they're willing to sell for about 25 million. KELLY CROW No Margritte has sold for over 12, so to ask for 25 is a big, big, big ticket. But Bouvier agrees to buy the picture for around 24. KELLY CROW Now he's got to create a whole narrative to convince Dimitri that it's worth a heck of a lot more. And there is Sam Valette the Sotheby's head of private sales. GRAHAM BOWLEY So Sotheby's provided an estimate for a different Magritte painting. KELLY CROW Not the Domaine D'Arnheim but the Empire of Light . Sam says, look, something like that could sell for like 40 million. SANDRINE GIROUD Bouvier forwards these estimates to MIKHAIL SAZONOV. GRAHAM BOWLEY So this was a a different price, which would help, Mr. Bouvier to manipulate Mr. Rybolovlev ROBERT WITTMAN So two years before, Sotheby's had evaluated the painting at a value of 1.2 million, and now they're offering it for 40 million based on a comparison that wasn't comparable to the painting. SANDRINE GIROUD Mr. Rybolovlev and his company's paid the painting to Bouvier. And one day after, Bouvier pays 24 million to Sotheby's for the painting. He completely lies about the price, and pockets a nice markup. Plus, he gets a commission of two percent on top of the transaction. But. It's just business inteligence. How do you blame me for that? EZRA CHOWAIKI I'm not so familiar with what Yves did, where I can say it's illegal. I can probably guess that. Som A lot of it, because I know Yves, it was probably was not very straightforward... But You know, I have my own... Demons. I ended up in prison for dealing art. I committed fraud. I lied about money I lied about payments. I'm absolutely guilty of what I did. I don't have anything else to loose. And I don't have anything else to hide. And you can believe me or not and it doesn't matter to me...I was well within, well within, the boundaries of how other dealers work. EZRA CHOWAIKI Sotheby's claiming they had nothing to do with with the deals with Rybolovlev. They had to have known, look I wasn't there, I don't know. GRAHAM BOWLEY From Mr. Rybolovlev's point of view Samuel Valette must have known. He must have known that Mr. Bouvier was flipping this art, days after, at much higher prices. EZRA CHOWAIKI Sotheby's is in the business of knowing things. Okay? If they did not know, that's worse. That's a worse statement about Sotheby's than them knowing about it and claiming they didn't. I hope they knew, otherwise they'd be idiots. And I don't think they're idiots. EZRA CHOWAIKI In prison we had instant coffee. So this is one of the perks of liberty. Espresso. MIKHAIL SAZONOV Regarding the increase in purchase of art. From 2006 Mr. Rybolovlev took more and more taste in art. This is when there was more cash available to him. Mr. Rybolovlev conceived an idea of putting together a collection which would be best in the world. EZRA CHOWAIKI I was shocked at how incredible this collection was. This was the best collection in the world, really, really incredible. This is the book. The whole Rybolovlev collection. It's a private book. Only like a few copies were made. So it was the first time that I saw what was actually in there, I was shocked.I mean, I just spent the whole time being totally knocked over about these pictures. One, two. Three Modigliani nudes. Give me a break. Nobody has three. It's not possible to get three. You know, I mean, the fact that he had three is insane. It's insane. This is the one that later kicked off the war between Bouvier and Rybolovlev. Shocking. � � SANDRINE GIROUD Without Mr. Rybolovlev's money, he wouldn't have been able to do all of this. KELLY CROW Dimitri wants to become a big shot in a very sophisticated circle. It's not just that he's wealthy. Everyone has a boat and a house and a trophy wife in this realm, right. In the billionaires club, everyone has a lot. What really sets you apart is if you have the thing that no one else has, right? If you have this painting that you walk in and you're like this is my da Vinci. No one else on the planet can say that. ALEXANDRA BREGMAN Leonardo da Vinci's works are simply not in private hands. That's not a thing. They are so astronomically valued, culturally and financially... That they belong in museums, unequivocally. GRAHAM BOWLEY So of all the great art. perhaps the most impressive painting. The Salvator Mundi . One of the most famous paintings in the world. It had recently only emerged into the art world,and been acknowledged as a Leonardo. The owners of the Salvavor Mundi chose to go to Sotheby's to sell it. KELLY CROW Bouvier comes to see the picture at Sotheby's headquarters. I know Mr. Rybolovlev is in New York. KELLY CROW He gets Sam Vallete to bring this picture with the collector not there. GRAHAM BOWLEY From Sotheby's across New York to Mr. Rybolovlev's apartment on Central Park West. � KELLY CROW The fine print, though. He need the sellers to play ball. � GRAHAM BOWLEY A month later, the negotiations shift to Paris. ALEXANDRA BREGMAN Bouvier is so good at what he does at this point, and he works with Jean-Marc Peretti, who is actually a poker player. � KELLY CROW The funny thing is, if Bouvier is not at the Hotel Bristol that day, he is sitting like two blocks away. Fiercely texting with Peretti while all these hardball negotiations are taking place. GRAHAM BOWLEY Mr. Bouviers representative agrees upon a price of 83 million. KELLY CROW Done. They shake hands. They're all completely worn out. Once that number is locked in. He then is also messaging with Dimitri's right hand man. And creating an entirely different, elaborate negotiation. The question is, what is he going to sell it to him for? MIKHAIL SAZONOV I remember, I mean. � MIKHAIL SAZONOV He's putting a very high price. Just incredibly high price. � KELLY CROW I think the markup for that oneis like around 44 million, � ANTOINE HARARI Yves has always been a man of vision, he realized that the Freeport's market was booming. At some point he had 170 companies invested money everywhere. � OLIVIER BULLOUGH Singapore is, very civilized place to move your money. And they don't ask too many questions. If you're rich and you've got money to move. � ANTOINE HARARI Rybolovlev shipped his whole collection to Singapore to be stored there. well. ANTOINE HARARI Yves Bouvier became not the king, but the emperor of Freeport. DIRECTOR How much money is stored away in freeports around the world? OLIVIER BULLOUGH I mean, that's the question. No one knows. There is a famous estimate that 2 to 5% of all the money in the world is laundered every year. Freeports are brilliant for that. Money laundering is a bit of a misnomer. What it is, is wealth laundering. It's between 2 and 5 trillion USD being moved every year. That's a lot of money. DIRECTOR How can a single art dealer like Bouvier get to the point where he represent 20% of Sotheby's private sales? EZRA CHOWAIKI Hold on a second. You just said that Bouvier represented about 20% of Sotheby's private sales. That is the first time I'm hearing this. I'm shocked. I don't know how you get to that point. How many pieces are there? DIRECTOR More than 800. EZRA CHOWAIKI He bought and sold more than 800 pieces at Sotheby's? Okay, so he did a lot of business. He did a lot of business with Sotheby's. It's crazy. DIRECTOR Are there any other big clients besides Rybolovlev? Don't be defensive, Yves. � DIRECTOR Fine, but talk about the regions ALEXANDRA BREGMAN She's really in the inner sanctum of Rybolovlev's life. TETIANA BERSHEDA We met in Geneva just after the ex-wife of Mr. Rybolovlev filed the divorce petition. He wanted a lawyer who spoke his native language. The impression I had from the first meeting was quite different from what I expected. I was moved by the contrast between the power he had in his business and the success, the tremendous success he had, as a businessman, on the one hand, and then the vulnerability he had as a human being. It was a very high profile case. His anchor in Geneva was his family, his wife and his children. When the divorce started, it was very acrimonious and he didn't have any reason to stay in Geneva anymore. He chose to make his new home in Monaco, which has the perfect geographical location and all the other advantages we know of. OLIVIER BULLOUGH Monaco is like the billionaire's playground on the Mediterranean. It began life as a pirate haven. It's still a pirate haven. It's just the pirates got richer. � OLIVIER BULLOUGH If you're prepared to spend money in Monaco, then the government there will befriend you. If you're friends with the prince, then you know, you're done right. It is brilliant. ALEXANDRA BREGMAN Safety is so essential to everything in his life. And safety is what makes him puts his money into a trust in Cyprus. Cyprus and Monaco serve the purpose of survival. Putting your money somewhere safe and sunny and fun. Safety is what brings Rybolovlev to Bouvier. ALEXANDRA BREGMAN He had an appetite for risk. That was endless. And it is. It's just dangerous. ANTOINE HARARI With time, we were able to discover that from the beginning of the fight between Elena and Dmitri, Yves Bouvier has played both sides. Sometimes the confidant of Elena, sometimes the best ally of Dimitri. � ALEXANDRA BREGMAN She's immediately taken away. � ALEXANDRA BREGMAN And Bouvier was untouched. ANTOINE HARARI He surely participated. And that's also why... Once she was arrested he was freed and he just left. DIRECTOR Several journalist have written that you were part of this setup... So... Do you understand? � TETIANA BERSHEDA It was a difficult year. I had to work on the appeal against his judgment, which was a huge amount of work. MIKHAIL SAZONOV He felt an immense pressure. There were some cash constraints, because of the divorce so he had to make, some decisions for the future. � ALEXANDRA BREGMAN Bouvier always says I'm fearless. I'm not afraid of anything. I would almost wager that he was addicted to the game that he'd been playing. � EZRA CHOWAIKI I don't even have to open it. If you're making the catalog raisonn�, which compiles all of the artist's work in one book, you put the best piece on the cover or the most representative piece. I mean, the fact that Bouvier got this piece. We never even suspected that piece would ever be for sale. � ANTOINE HARARI The Rothko sell, which is the last painting he will try to sell. It kind of characterize all of what we could call the Bouvier method. SANDRINE GIROUD Bouvier negotiated the purchase of Rothko No. 6 from a French family. ANTOINE HARARI He knows that the Moueix family, which is an old family in Bordeaux in France that is very famous for their wine. They will at some point be willing to sell. � ANTOINE HARARI And in a year and a half, they will spend more than 2.5 million Euros in wine. � SANDRINE GIROUD The purchase price of the Rothko was concluded at around 80 million. Bouvier went on, pretending they were negotiating. 140 million. so 60 million difference. What happens next is that our client agrees to 140 million transaction. � MIKHAIL SAZONOV So Dimitry could not come up with the whole amount quickly. � KELLY CROW Amadeo Modigliani's T�te . Which is head in french. For years the record was around 50 million dollars At auction, for one of these. He didn't do that many. Bouvier puts that T�te back up for sale. And because he's a major client of Sotheby's, Sotheby's puts it on the cover. They give it all the whole, marketing brouhaha. EZRA CHOWAIKI This is the Sotheby's sales catalog. There it is. Three covers. I mean, it's really the top lot in the sale. ANTOINE HARARI With this money, Bouvier paid the Moueix family. What is missing is the margin of roughly 60 million. � MIKHAIL SAZONOV If we do not pay, it's not because we do not want to, but because we told him that we have cashflow issues. � ANTOINE HARARI For months he pretends he needs to fight, it is difficult... the price is higher. MIKHAIL SAZONOV Dimitri felt an immense pressure for a lot of money because of Bouviers greed and hubris, right? GRAHAM BOWLEY In the New York Times, there was a report by my colleague about the sale of the Salvator Mundi at a much lower price than Mr. Rybolovlev had paid for it. ALEXANDRA BREGMAN What's important about this article is that the Leonardo da Vinci painting listed clearly states between 75 million and 80 million. Rybolovlev paid 127. MIKHAIL SAZONOV God knows what they write in the newspapers, right? But why not let Dimitri know and decide. GRAHAM BOWLEY Rybolovlev started to have suspicions. ALEXANDRA BREGMAN Certainly, the permanence of a New York Times piece and the credibility of a place like the Times means there's no going back. This isn't just any old article. This is the Times. So it must be right. MIKHAIL SAZONOV He panicked when he saw this article and decided to go ahead with all possible inquiries. � ANTOINE HARARI According to the Rybolovlev side, Yves Bouvier was shown the article from the Times. DIRECTOR He confronts you with the NewYork Times article? � DIRECTOR All right. ANTOINE HARARI There is this text message to his right-hand Peretti, where Yves Bouvier says I'm done he knows . ALEXANDRA BREGMAN We're in danger zone. � MIKHAIL SAZONOV Again, he's pretending that he's negotiating with the owner of the Rothko. The owner insists, he cannot wait anymore. He will not accept this, he will not accept that. He never steps back, he never relents. He's like this bulldog, right? He clenched his jaws and he cannot unclench them. I cannot really imagine what it is like being Bouvier. You know that you are swindling someone But you are so far away in your Hubris that you consider yourself entitled to it. I'm outraged basically. ANTOINE HARARI There was a moment where, all of this fell. ALEXANDRA BREGMAN St. Barts Eden Rock. Beautiful. And. Sandy Heller is there. KELLY CROW Sandy Heller. Dont get me in trouble now. EZRA CHOWAIKI Sandy Heller is one of the biggest advisors in the world. A major player in this business. He made it more like the finance trade, with the hedge funders and all these guys. KELLY CROW It would make sense that Dimitri, if he had any qualms about the prices that he was paying, would just kick around and ask advice of a guy like that. I mean, he probably should have done that many years ago. ROBERT WITTMAN Many dealers, they'll be happy to tell on each other. Yeah. EZRA CHOWAIKI Here's what I think happened in St. Barts. Sandy is a very calculating guy. Apparently, Sandy approached your beloved Mr. Rybolovlev: Mr. Rybolovlev, I would like to commend you in the purchase of the beautiful Modigliani nude. I expect that you'll be very happy with your purchase. Okay. Thank you very much. Yes. I don't know how you knew about this deal. But listen, between me and you, 90 million for that painting is a great fucking deal. Thank you very much. What do you mean, 90 million? You're mistaken. It's more than 90 million. I'd be more than 90 million.Approximately. You pay more than 90 million? No, you pay. Oh. ALEXANDRA BREGMAN What was Sandy doing? And why did he do it? It is a lot of what's on people's minds, who are suspicious of this story. EZRA CHOWAIKI Was it intentional? Was it planned? At the end of the day, Rybolovlev got angry at Yves, and hired Sandy as his advisor. MIKHAIL SAZONOV It was a pretty dramatic way of discovering things. SANDRINE GIROUD Mr. Rybolovlev's world just collapses.I got a call in the 31st of December. I should say that New Year's Eve is probably the biggest family holiday for Russians, so getting called on 31st of December is quite a big thing. TETIANA BERSHEDA I have to say, I was very surprised, when I received a phone call from Dmitri. I was flying from Geneva to Monaco for the celebration of the New Year's Eve performance with the ballet of Monte Carlo. MIKHAIL SAZONOV The first words were: Do know that.Bouvier was swindling us? TETIANA BERSHEDA Dmitri is a person who usually controls his emotions. It's very rare to see him go out of the borders. And that phone call was clearly a moment like this. MIKHAIL SAZONOV It just defies imagination. He was one of us, he worked for us. He was part of our team. ALEXANDRA BREGMAN Step by step, Rybolovlev was discovering that Bouvier had taken a lot more money than he previously thought. SANDRINE GIROUD He starts questioning what happened with the other transactions. So he starts discussing with Sandy Heller and shows him all the paintings. TETIANA BERSHEDA Several other phone calls were following about other transactions they were discussing. I had to step out to talk to him, because I sensed that the matter was very urgent. ALEXANDRA BREGMAN Oh my god. Bouvier made 1,000,000,000 of my 2,000,000,000 art collection. TETIANA BERSHEDA He clearly was shocked. I think he struggled to believe the scope of what was happening. He was appalled MIKHAIL SAZONOV You can't help asking yourself why were we so blind to it? You just keep turning it in your head. TETIANA BERSHEDA By the end of the day, I understood that what he discovered was going to have serious legal consequences. MIKHAIL SAZONOV Well, after we discovered all that, again he's pretending that he's negotiating with the owner of the Rothko. Showering us with messages and threats from the seller. You know already, that he is cheating and you think; how can you invent all this? MIKHAIL SAZONOV You deal with someone day to day and the person lies to you all the time. It does something to irritate you, right? But then We had to secure that Rybolovlev's interests would be protected. We were very careful in organising our strategy. TETIANA BERSHEDA In the first days of January 2015 I was back in Geneva, and I had meetings with Mike Sazonov. I didn't know much about the transactions, so I had to learn. � MIKHAIL SAZONOV The top priority was to protect Mr. Rybolovlev's collection. � DIRECTOR And you didn't suspect anything? � TETIANA BERSHEDA We were going through all the paperwork, preparing documents. We drafted a criminal complaint, which was filed in Monaco. ALEXANDRA BREGMAN That's what the Russian team does well. They move their papers, and they got their documents in order, and their legal narrative in order and they were ready for war. � ANTOINE HARARI Almost a year after the trap that fell on Elena, exactly the same happened to Yves Bouvier in Monaco. TETIANA BERSHEDA It was not just a small wave. It was a tsunami coming. MIKHAIL SAZONOV You do not build up defenses against your own people. That's why treason is punished with capital punishment in most countries, right? � GRAHAM BOWLEY In the art world.There's the glamorous exterior. And then, if you look underneath, you see where kind of the real work is done. And... That's where Yves Bouvier worked. ALEXANDRA BREGMAN Known for being unknown. Powerful for being behind the scenes. ANTOINE HARARI Yves Bouvier built the biggest art collection of the 21st century, for a Russian oligarch. GRAHAM BOWLEY We are talking about 2 billion dollars worth of art. 38 paintings... Masterpieces. ANTOINE HARARI We believe that Bouvier pocketed half on those transactions. The guy made a billion dollars. A billion. KELLY CROW The Russian oligarch Rybolovlev is accusing Yves Bouvier, of the biggest art fraud in history. OLIVIER BULLOUGH The Bouvier-Rybolovlev story is a rare opportunity to see the inner workings of a globalized system that support the super rich. It's all about... hiding money. You're looking through a keyhole and you can just see a little bit right there. But you got to understand, it's so big. GRAHAM BOWLEY This story has been one of my main stories since it broke in 2015. It began with the arrest of Yves Bouvier, and we heard the first rumbles. It's an epic war. From Monaco to Singapore, Hong Kong to Geneva. This battle between Mr. Rybovlev and Mr. Bouvier Finally comes to open court, in New York, and we have the trial of the century. KELLY CROW Dmitri Rybolovlev is accusing Yves Bouvier, of selling artworks with secret and significant mark ups. Yves professes his innocence of the whole thing. We are so rarely invited into these secret dealings between the worlds billionaires. ANTOINE HARARI Because of the court case, all of their. messages, e-mails, invoices are now public. Which finally allows us to investigate the full picture. This story is much more than a fraud case It's a jump into the abyss of the art world. Both have very different versions of what happened, but only one has a real desire to talk about it. � ANTOINE HARARI As soon as you start digging you understand that they are both poker players. Bouvier He's very careful at not,allowing you to see too many cards of his game. With Rybolovlev it goes even further because he's impossible to meet. There's almost no interviews of him. There's almost no public records. Rybolovlev came to Switzerland in 1995. He fled Russia. That part, we know. KELLY CROW We knew that he was starting to buy things, but he was honestly just one in a big bunch of people and he wasn't the most glamorous. He was obviously a power player, but so much else about him is still kind of opaque. ANTOINE HARARI How would Rybolovlev not be aware that Yves Bouvier made a billion behind his back. How did the guy get away with it? That's the one hundred million dollar question... � GRAHAM BOWLEY Bouvier inherited a shipping company from his father. And he very smartly, saw the need of very rich people to ship and store their art. ANTOINE HARARI This is what some people like to call the biggest art museum that nobody will ever see. I've been inside once and I managed to visit some parts of it. But I wasn't the right kind of client. GRAHAM BOWLEY Mr. Bouvier developed the Geneva Freeport. Which is a big deal. This is the most important storage facility for the art world. GRAHAM BOWLEY He had corridors full of peoples art, from many different clients. � KELLY CROW I met him years ago. I went to the Geneva Freeport. At that time, it was really one of the only free ports in the world, It was kind of an Indiana Jones moment. I would not be surprised if every stolen piece of art that we were ever looking for was sort of tucked in there. OLIVIER BULLOUGH Yeah, freeports are amazing. It's a little bit like that bit in an airport. You've got off the plane, but you haven't shown your passport yet. So where are you? KELLY CROW Once you put art in there, you're not obligated to pay taxes on it untill you take it out. OLIVIER BULLOUGH Freeports are kind of the physical manifestation of Money Land. DIRECTOR What is Money Land? OLIVIER BULLOUGH Money Land is a country I invented. But it's real. It was like a joke to myself. Why don't I understand what's going on? Literally why, me personally. Why don't I understand what's going on? Because the money is in Money Land. Where if you're rich, you can keep your money there. And No one else can follow it. If I've got 100 million and I want to make sure no one knows it's mine. A really good way of having that Is owning a painting. And if that painting is in a Freeport, it's an amazingly good way of moving wealth in an untraceable way. The whole pillars that support this lovely country for the super rich Are the enablers. Without them, it wouldn't exist. And the richer you are, the better the enablers you can afford. ANTOINE HARARI Bouvier prepared his whole life around that somebody would come, at some point and be rich enough to fuel the expansion of his business. It's not a coincidence that something like this would happen. The coincidence is that it is Rybolovlev. KELLY CROW Yeah.Who is he? He was always a mystery. OLIVIER BULLOUGH Dimitry Rybolovlev. He is not only an ultra wealthy oligarch, he is the essence of the people who live in Moneyland. KELLY CROW I know him for his actually really good taste. I know him for his deep pockets. GRAHAM BOWLEY Dimitri Rybolovlev, as far as the art world is concerned, seemed to come out of nowhere. He was a man who appeared on the scene and developed one of the greatest art collections in the world. He was born in Perm in the former Soviet Union. He trained as a doctor. And then he emerged through the chaos of the end of the Soviet Union. OLIVIER BULLOUGH In the Soviet Union communism collapsed and the government deliberately chose to privatise everything. A small group of what we now call oligarchs, managed to use their power or their influence to amass wealth. Really, the most valuable things you could possess were natural resources. Oil. Gas. And huge deposits of potash, which is astonishingly valuable as a fertilizer. And that's where Rybolovlev decided to invest. SANDRINE GIROUD My name is SANDRINE GIROUD, I'm a lawyer in Geneva specializing in international litigation and art law and I've been involved with the Bouvier-Rybolovlev case, representing Mr. Rybolovlev. and his companies for some time now. ANTOINE HARARI What we know is that Bouvier and Rybolovlev met in the Freeport in August 2002. SANDRINE GIROUD Mr. Rybolovlev decided to acquire a Chagall. This Chagall was to be delivered at the Freeport, and at the delivery, for whatever reason, Bouvier was there. � SANDRINE GIROUD Mr. Rybolovlev realised that the certificate of authenticity of the artwork was missing and so he gets really annoyed. Tanja Rappo, who was also present at the time, speaks Russian. SANDRINE GIROUD And Bouvier all of a sudden appears as the saviour. Jumps in and says I can fix it. � ANTOINE HARARI For Rybolovlev the fact of being able to find the certificate showed the depth of Yves Bouvier's connection to the art world. � MIKHAIL SAZONOV My name is MIKHAIL SAZONOV. I am just a person I used to work for Mr. Rybolovlev as his chief financial officer. What you dowith a lot of money? You get a good asset allocation for your needs. Basically, was involved in any transactions acquiring a property. Or an airplane. A helicopter or a ship. Or a painting. Mr Rybolovlev told me that; I want to buy the bestand buy it at the right price. ALEXANDRA BREGMAN I traveled the world to investigate this story, and it's been a journey that has taken me really Almost ten years in total. The Russian camp is always just moving you along the pace. I never made it to the biggest fish. I never shook his hand. It's like Russian dolls. It's one after another after another. You get to the bigger and bigger fish. ALEXANDRA BREGMAN Rybolovlev built his fortune in the nineties, through the company Uralkali. It was a difficult time to say the least. Should we start with the murder? Ok One of the members of the board, was suspicious that there was some mafia activity, at Uralkali. He said to his commrades at the board; Hey, we have some corruption here, we should weed out the mafia. Immediately dead. Rybolovlev was arrested and imprisoned for murder. When one speaks to the Russian side, they say it was a strategic decision. Rybolovlev is not a murderer. Rybolovlev took the hit for the team. And he knew, when he would get out of jail, he would get his shares. The psychological toll of being in prison. Are you willing to sacrifice your health and safety? What about the safety of your family? And used three cars with the same license plate. So if you were tracking them. Which one would you follow? When the Rybolovlev's move to Geneva, it's his wife Elena, and their daughter Ekaterina. MIKHAIL SAZONOV Mr. Rybolovlev was stillvery involved in managing his Business in Russia. So he would only come to Geneva to to relax and see his family. ALEXANDRA BREGMAN It's a place where someone who has just been in a Russian prison can exhale. OLIVIER BULLOUGH It's a brand. Switzerland. It's reliable, it's safe. So, if you're going to put your money anywhere you'd put it in Switzerland. DIRECTOR How was your role there? MIKHAIL SAZONOV Well, try to think of any protective measures, Making sure that the assets are beyond reach. SANDRINE GIROUD They didn't know many people and the language barrier made it more difficult for them to really befriend people. MIKHAIL SAZONOV Especially Elena looked for someone who could help Sort out basic things and then later to integrate well in local life. SANDRINE GIROUD Through her dentist, she met Tanja Rappo, who was the wife of her dentist and who spoke Russian. so she became close to them. She helped them knowing people, introducing them. She was there for many years, and even became the godmother of the Rybolovlev's second daughter. MIKHAIL SAZONOV I didn't like her at all. I thought that she was completely false. Basically somebody you could not rely on. DIRECTOR Did you express this to the Rybolovlev family? MIKHAIL SAZONOV No why should I? This is their personal friend. SANDRINE GIROUD Bouvier, seeing how Rappo was close to the Rybolovlev family, relied on her to help him. After the Chagall event Mr. Bouvier contacted Mrs. Rappo. He wanted to have a meeting with Dimitri Rybolovlev. GRAHAM BOWLEY Certainly Mr. Rybolovlev portrayed this as a great friendship. A man who he welcomed into his home, who he would socialise with. ANTOINE HARARI We learned way later on that Bouvier hadn't revealed that, one of his companies was related to the owner of the first painting that Rybolovlev bought, which was the Chagall. SANDRINE GIROUD That, he doesn't tell Mr. Rybolovlev. ANTOINE HARARI So it was very easy for him to get the certificate. � DIRECTOR And so regarding the certificate you asked for it directly to.. � DIRECTOR Because you knew him. � ANTOINE HARARI So this kind of magic trick was the first in the making of their relationship. SANDRINE GIROUD An illustration of the very complex web of lie that he built to get Mr. Rybolovlev's trust, and to keep it. � FREEPORT WORKER We analyzed this part. Since the expert says this was changed from the photo in the catalog. Here we see there is no restoration. � GRAHAM BOWLEY He switches over and starts to buy art for himself. And art for other people. And this became very controversial because, He had this immense knowledge conveyed to him. Information that was very valuable. He denies that he used this improperly. In any way. But he became a dealer, he became one of the biggest dealers in the world. � MIKHAIL SAZONOV Mr. Rybolovlev told me that from now... He would act as our agent, he would work for us. SANDRINE GIROUD Mr Rybolovlev asked Bouvier how much he wanted for his services. And it's actually Mr Bouvier who said; I want two percent commission on each transaction. Which should be a full remuneration. MIKHAIL SAZONOV 2% remuneration on each deal closed. SANDRINE GIROUD Bouvier stressed the importance to keep everything confidential. MIKHAIL SAZONOV He said the following: When I go and negotiate for you guys I don't want people to know that im doing it for a Russian oliggarch because then it would be a much higher price. On the other hand the sellers, do not necessarily want people to know that they are selling, becasue this might be taken as a sign that they have cash difficulties. And people don't necessarily want other people to know that. We understand that, it is logical. SANDRINE GIROUD So all the information was centralized with Bouvier. Making room for himself to act as the seller, without telling us. So Bouvier was exactly the fox in the hen house. DIRECTOR According to Rybolovlev; he saw you as his agent, and that he had the right to... SANDRINE GIROUD Another important element is also that Bouvier never took the economic risk of the transactions. If you look at the history of the transactions. So what he does: He negotiates a price. Tell a different price to Mr. Rybolovlev. Waits for the money And then transfers it to the seller. He is just manipulating the whole thing to his advantage. MIKHAIL SAZONOV And also of course the constant reinforcement by Tania Rappo. She was not an art expert. But shewould go onand on and on. How fantastic it is. Dimitri, please just look at this. Oh my God, you should absolutely have it. � SANDRINE GIROUD Tanja Rappo's commission was a complete secret to Dimitri Rybolovlev and his family. She never mentioned that she got any money from Bouvier. GRAHAM BOWLEY For Mr. Rybolovlev this was a new world in which he was moving in, and he had this guide,who seemed to have his best interests at heart. Critics say that it left him extremel vulnerable, because he was relying on this one man to dictate the terms of what he was buying. � DIRECTOR And aren't there risks that something goes wrong? DIRECTOR This appetite for strong sensations, where does it come from? � BOUVIERS�FRIEND I can't go skiing, because I have the cows. � BOUVIERS�FRIEND No holidays. But then, we made our choices so. BOUVIERS�FRIEND It's all right,you know � EZRA CHOWAIKI Russia was such an up and coming mysteriously exciting place to sell art to. � KELLY CROW He was definitely one of the first art world folks to sort of go scouting for new money. � SIXTINE CRUTCHFIELD He says: I need someone to run The Art Fair? Well I don't know how to run an art fair.. He said: Well neither do I. My answer was: I don't come cheap. He said: So im not cheap, so whatever you want. Basically thats how we started. � SIXTINE CRUTCHFIELD We had to reassure the exhibitors. They were extremely worried that the Russians would confiscate all their wares, and that it would be a big scandal. Nobody had been to Russia before,with that much value. And those many irreplaceable artworks,if they were stolen. We had something like 80 galleries. EZRA CHOWAIKI This was my booth. It's my name here. Somehow, Yves managed to get the Kremlin to invite the entire exhibition group. This was like an honor reserved for dignitaries. SIXTINE CRUTCHFIELD With every fair there's always a gala openening. We had a red carpet going from the Manege into the Kremlin through the back door. EZRA CHOWAIKI You know, when you're were watching those Disney movies like Beauty and the Beast, and you see these magnificent palaces with these ballrooms, and you know those don't exist in real life. They're there. They are the Kremlin, that's where they are. SIXTINE CRUTCHFIELD We got a private tour of all those rooms The same rooms that you see Putin in, on television. All the carillions started to play music. It was unbeliveable. In Moscow we had become The Event Of The Year. We had over 65 thousands visitors in five days, people were queuing 2,5 hours to get in. EZRA CHOWAIKI You saw the billionaires aggressively involved. Rybolovlev's wife, was the president of the Moscow Fair. Bouvier was hanging out with all these oligarchs. I mean, they all know him. EZRA CHOWAIKI The Russians. Eventually they were a huge part of the market. Huge. DIRECTOR Who were your customers in Russia, beside Rybolovlev? � OLIVIER BULLOUGH Yves Bouvier,is an art guy but that's onlythe tip of the iceberg. Underneath you've got this whole other business, which is about smoothing the transactions,hiding the transactions. It involves dozens of different countries,different legal structures. It involves banks,lawyers and accountants. Anonymity is one ofthese great words.The nasty word is secrecy . But they're not secret,it's confidential. DIRECTOR Bouvier uses the word discreet . OLIVIER BULLOUGH Oh, that's even better. That's like the top level, discretion . Who wouldn't want discretion? ANTOINE HARARI You have to give it to the guy. He's brilliant.When the Panama case exploded, and the fact that some people were using offshore companies The ICIJ which is this consortium of investigative journalists, put the platform where you could check people's name and their companies. And if you search Bouvier, you'd find a lot of companies because he had opened hundreds of offshore companies. OLIVIER BULLOUGH Offshore is a great word. It just means somewhere else. It's infinitely complex in practice. But the basic thing is: if your money is offshore it's somewhere else. And therefore the laws of the country that you are in don't apply to it. That's what Money Land is. ANTOINE HARARI Some of those companies were simple vehicles, that were offered to customers. In order to do transaction in a more discreet way. And so it helped people to avoid paying taxes. KELLY CROW There was no law against it and so you can't fault people for, taking advantage, of a financial mechanism that works for them. But I think that's just the scale of it, the scale of how many people had offshore accounts and were moving things through, how many galleries, how many dealers, how many collectors.. It was, you know, frankly, very overwhelming. MIKHAIL SAZONOV Somewhere around 2006 One of the mines was flooded. That was a major crisis. OLIVIER BULLOUGH You know, it's just a hole. It used to be a building, and now the building is at the bottom of a hole. MIKHAIL SAZONOV The Russian governmentsuddenly started questioning the mine flooding and putting blame on Dimitri. He thought that it was a good idea to sell and he sold. OLIVIER BULLOUGH There havent been any other Russian oligarchs who sold up and walked away with it. I don't know how he did that. KELLY CROW We don't really know him, in the West until he sells this company for billions of dollars. Suddenly he's not just a wealthy guy, Suddenly he's like super wealthy. OLIVIER BULLOUGH He got all this money What are you going to buy with it? Is it safe? I lived in Russia for many years. I traveled throughout the former Soviet Union. And I became really interested in oligarchs. Why were they so rich? I mean, these were poor countries, often Places that were failing as countries. And yet you had these very wealthy men, always men. It seemed extraordinary to me that people who were. Corrupt, should we say certainly questionable, were able to. spend all this money, in London or in Paris or in New York, as if they were ordinary rich people. GRAHAM BOWLEY In the 2000's we saw lots of wealth coming from Russian buyers. And in their bidding and their infusion of their wealth, prices rose. The world's great auction houses, hold auctions regularly through the year, At which buyers come together publicly and bid for works of art. OLIVIER BULLOUGH It was a competitive spending spree by oligarchs. Who can spend more? Look what you can do in the West! GRAHAM BOWLEY This is a really interesting period. Mr. Rybolovlev managed to sell his potash empire, for billions of dollars. This meets with Mr. Bouvier ambitions. So now the transactions really become more frequent. Bouvier at this point starts to work very closely with Sotheby's. EZRA CHOWAIKI We can't conduct our business without having a relationship with the auction houses. We need to buy through them, sell through them, try to get things from them. � KELLY CROW It's a crazy, genteel world where they just speak just the right French, and they speak just the right German. But don't be surprised. Behind those really good suits, they're very cutthroat. EZRA CHOWAIKI There's no way to do this business without lying to people. There's no way to do it without exaggerating grossly. Sotheby's art dealerWe haven't seen anything like it in my lifetime. GRAHAM BOWLEY Increasingly, because collectors and sellers want greater privacy, anonymity, there's been a shift, and a lot of auction houses business, is not actually auctions. It's private sales. Which is where an auction house brings buyer and seller together behind closed doors. ANTOINE HARARI The more precise we are with all documents, banking statements and sale proofs of the different paintings. The better we can understand the case. This painting is One of the masterpieces that Rybolovlev acquired. It's the first time we have Sotheby's entering the scene and - we could say it's the start of the end. MIKHAIL SAZONOV You would not expect that there were a lot of Klimts for sale When it came up, it did appear as being pretty exceptional. KELLY CROW Chef's kiss for the market. � KELLY CROW All he had to do basically was just convince Dimitri to buy it, and for how much. MIKHAIL SAZONOV This masterpiece is the most beautifulin private hands. it fits perfectly to the Belle Epoque styleof your mansion...Here Bouvier tells that This is the most beautiful. That's the first message. KELLY CROW You can see in the emails that are popping up at court, sort of a whole theater that Bouvier has created around the deals with Dimitri. He's just performing. MIKHAIL SAZONOV Do you think I'm happy my emails have been released into general public? No, I'm not. KELLY CROW In the course of the courtcase we learn that: There is this meeting that's setup in a warehouse in Austria. Dimitri arrives with Yves Bouvier And the two men walk in and there is Sam Vallette, the Sotheby's right hand manfor private sales. And he's sitting here with this Klimts Water Serpents all lit aglow. It sounds very James Bond That's a lot of the times how auction houses move and shop art through the world. Rybolovlev realizes it's probably going to require a big price, but in that moment he fell for it. Yves Bouvier wants the moon as he always does. He wants the top price he can get. He negotiates a price with Sotheby's: at 126 million dollars. SANDRINE GIROUD Bouvier said to us: I think the seller wants to sell it for. 220 million. KELLY CROW He creates this elaborate construct. Never mentioning that he bought it for 126 million. MIKHAIL SAZONOV He is trying to get like a hook. SANDRINE GIROUD It would be a miracle. And he wrote it, a miracle , if I can get it for 180 million. Bouvier pocketed more than 50 million mark-up. Plus a commission. KELLY CROW So the funny thing about the art world is that despite all of this great effort at doing things very discreetly, man, we all love to gossip and word just spreads. Fast forward a year: word leaks out into an Austrian newspaper that the Klimt sold for in the region of 120-126 million dollars. which is ecxactly what Bouvier paid. � MIKHAIL SAZONOV An article in the Austrian press talks about the price when it left Austria. I don't know where this information came from. This was probably clever saying that basically you cannot trust the press. it's true that, I personally did not trust the press. KELLY CROW After a while I think his instincts started to kick in. That you know, I just really hope that this art is as good as my guy says. Then Bouvier doubles down and says ...but I can go to Sotheby's and get a valuation for it...maybe to put your mind at rest. Miraculously.. the valuation comes back from Sotheby's. It's a 180 million picture. Sotheby's is convinced it's not worth the 126 they sold it to Bouvier. It is now worth exactly what Dmitri paid for it. MIKHAIL SAZONOV So, that was pretty clever. ANTOINE HARARI Once Sotheby's goes that far and does produce this certificate of insurance value... For 180 million. They include a list of former transactions of this painting. And it doesn't include the transaction between Sotheby's and Bouvier. They forget to include that. For how long can Yves keep hiding his mark ups. KELLY CROW Jesus the last guy I'd want to piss off is a Russian Oligarch. Someone can disappear if you make a Russian Oligarch mad. � � � � � � � �