Parisian Gallery Owners Sentenced Over Stolen Picasso Works

By Katriona Hannah

The French criminal court has issued a verdict regarding the Parisian gallery, Belle et Belle. The gallery owners, Anne Pfeffer and her husband, Herbert, have been sentenced to two and one years respectively. They have also been instructed to pay approximately €400,000 in fines and were banned from working as art dealers for five years, although the couple does have the right to appeal the court’s decision. 

The case began after Catherine Hutin and Sylvie Baltazart-Eon found that numerous drawings and prints were missing from their Parisian homes. The works by Picasso, Giacometti, Kandinsky, Bacon, Calder and other prominent artists were stolen by their handyman Frédéric Munchenbach over the course of three years. Munchenbach then sold them to Antonio Celano, an Italian junk dealer, for approximately €70,000 in cash. Celano, while in custody, confessed to selling the artworks to Anne Pfeffer and her gallery, Belle et Belle. The crime was uncovered in October 2011, when a few of the stolen works were submitted to the Picasso Administration for authentication before an exhibition in the Boulakia gallery. After the Picasso Administration contacted Catherine Hutin regarding this, and she inspected her personal collection of her stepfather’s art, it became clear that over 350 works were missing. At the same time, Sylvie Baltazart-Eon, the daughter of Pablo Picasso’s gallerist Aimé Maeght, discovered the disappearance of over 100 lithographs and etchings by numerous artists previously belonging to her father. The four drawings in the Boulakia gallery and those found in possession of other art dealers led investigators to the Belle et Belle gallery. In a police raid, several documents linking the gallery to an offshore company with a Swiss bank account were also found, leading to suspicions of money laundering. Following the raid of the gallery and the Pfeiffers' home, police have stated that hundreds of artworks were not accurately registered, and many fit the descriptions of those that had been stolen. Experts claim that edition numbers on several prints also appear to be forged.  

Picasso’s Study for Lysistrata is one of the stolen artworks. Credit: Succession Picasso

The investigation has lasted a decade, with delays being caused by the Coronavirus pandemic. The court has found that the Pfeffers had full knowledge of the illegal nature of the works of art, despite their persistence to the contrary. Due to the French statute of limitations being for three years after a felony-like theft, the man responsible for initially committing the crime - Frédéric Munchenbach, has not been summoned to court. Two sheets of paper, with several drawings by Picasso on them, have been damaged beyond repair due to being cut into separate pieces for sale, and around 500 drawings and prints are still yet to be found. 

Bibliography

“Trial of Paris gallery over stolen Picasso works delayed until next year due to coronavirus court backlog.” The Art Newspaper. https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2020/06/15/trial-of-paris-gallery-over-stolen-picasso-works-delayed-until-next-year-due-to-coronavirus-court-backlog

“Paris gallerists—found guilty of selling Picasso works stolen by handyman—receive suspended jail sentences.” The Art Newspaper. https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/11/22/french-court-hands-jail-sentences-to-paris-gallerists-found-guilty-of-dealing-in-picasso-works-stolen-by-handyman

“PARIS GALLERISTS GET PRISON TIME FOR PEDDLING PURLOINED PICASSOS” Artforum. https://www.artforum.com/news/paris-gallerists-get-prison-time-for-peddling-purloined-picassos-89705