French customs officials were tipped off about an alleged attempt to take a painting belonging to member of a banking dynasty to Switzerland.
When French customs officers boarded a yacht docked off the town of Calvi in northern Corsica, they knew exactly what they were looking for: a 25 million euro (US$27.2 million) Picasso belonging to a Spanish banking tycoon, banned from export from Spain, allegedly en route to Switzerland.
Island officials had been tipped off on Thursday last week that an attempt was being made to export the painting, Head of a Young Woman, declared a “historical heritage asset of exceptional importance” by a Spanish judge, and that it was in French territory.
The owner was named as Jaime Botin, whose family was involved in setting up the Santander bank.
Botin, 79, was not on the boat, believed to be the three-masted, 370-tonne “superyacht,” the Adix, which customs officials said was owned by the company and flying a British flag.
Officials said that an export demand registered at Bastia, also on Corsica, was found on the vessel, but was not in Botin’s name.
The yacht’s captain could only produce a document in Spanish, found to be a legal judgement declaring the painting a “national treasure” and banning it from leaving Spain.
In May, a Spanish court upheld a 2013 ban preventing Botin from taking the work, kept on the Adix moored in the port of Valencia, to Britain, where it was reportedly to be sold by auctioneer Christie’s.
Spanish experts say the painting is “one of the few made by the painter in his so-called Gosol period where Picasso is clearly influenced by the fabric of Iberian art … that had a decisive influence, not only on cubism, but also on the subsequent evolution of the painting of the 20th century” and was of “exceptional importance.”
Shipping records show that the Adix, which was previously moored at the Real Club Nautico de Valencia in June, stopped off at Menorca, before arriving off the coast of Corsica on July 10. The vessel’s current position is off the Anse de Chevanu in southern Corsica.
The Adix is reported to have recently undergone an eight-month refit, which included a redesign of its deck house and the addition of new portholes on each side. As part of an overhaul of its engineering, new generators and a main engine, bow thruster and rudder were installed.
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