2023-10-21 13:11:43
It’s a drawing, no bigger than a pocket handkerchief, discovered during a move. Forgotten for almost sixty years, without anyone suspecting the identity of its author, the study represents the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian. However, since its discovery, it has been at the heart of a standoff between the Ministry of Culture and its owner, a retired doctor. This legal battle has just found its epilogue for the benefit of the second: the study will finally be able to leave France.
It must be said that in the meantime its author had been identified. He is none other than Leonardo da Vinci. Several expert opinions being taken into account, the value of the drawing has also literally exploded to reach a range of 8 to 12 million euros.
A “national treasure”
The whole affair began in 2016 when the study reappeared, thanks to a move. Alerted, the Ministry of Culture classifies the work as a national treasure, a procedure which allows its export to be prohibited and gives thirty months to acquire it for the benefit of the Louvre Museum.
In July 2019, the State made an offer of 10 million euros to the owner, called Jean B., who refused it.
Unable to match the 15 million euros of the latest estimate, the State renounced the acquisition but subsequently refused to issue an export certificate, arguing that the work could come from a theft .
The drawing was also the subject of disputes between its owner and the Tajan auction house which had carried out its first appraisal. A dispute finally resolved by an amicable agreement.
The ministry admits its defeat
Friday October 20, the Ministry of Culture recognized its defeat and indicated that it “would issue the requested certificate in accordance with this court decision”. A few days earlier, in fact, “the administrative court of Paris (had) ordered the minister to issue the export certificate allowing the definitive exit from French territory of the study attributed to Leonardo da Vinci”specifies a press release from the court.
This decision therefore constitutes a disappointment for the State, which had filed a complaint for theft at the end of 2020. The court, however, considered that “the elements invoked by the Minister of Culture do not constitute serious and consistent presumptions of the illicit origin of the property”.
Conversely, it is a “great victory”, estimated Olivier Baratelli, lawyer for the owner. “This exceptional drawing by Leonardo da Vinci, long deprived of exhibition to the general public due to eccentric claims, will finally be able to be presented and sold”, did he declare. The owner, now in his eighties, should soon entrust his work to Christie’s.
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