Amidst the recent Panama Papers revelations on global art market figures, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) have published an article connecting collectors to high profile art deals and disputes during the last decade. Titled ‘The Art of Secrecy’, the article shows how the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, source of the leaked documents, was used by significant art collectors worldwide as ‘offshore middlemen’, enabling them to make use of ‘the same dark corners of the global financial system as dictators, politicians, fraudsters and others who benefit from the anonymity these secrecy zones offer’. The report reveals notably the double hand involvement of billionaire investor Joseph Lewis in the seminal 1997 sale of the Victor and Sally Ganz collection at Christie’s, and lists the Thyssen-Bornemisza family and Picasso’s granddaughter, Marina Ruiz-Picasso among its registered companies. Read more here.
8 April 2016.
