Christie’s has filed a lawsuit in Paris against Italian real estate investor Nanni Bassani Antivari, who the house asserts is refusing to pay for a work purchased at Christie’s France in June.
In legal filings obtained by the Art Newspaper, Christie’s alleges that Antivari was the winning bidder of Jean Siméon Chardin 1760 masterpiece Cut Melon, which sold for $28 million, on an estimate of $8.4 million to $12.6 million. The house is demanding that Antivari cough up the full price plus interest and penalty fees, amounting to $28.7 million in total. The hearing is scheduled for Monday December 16.
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The situation is doubly awkward for Christie’s because immediately after Cut Melon sold, the house announced that the sale represented several records. They included “a world record for a Chardin,” “the most expensive 18th-century work of art ever sold in France,” and “the most expensive Old Master painting ever sold in France.”
TAN reported that the work’s under-bidder was reportedly the Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. The bidding on Cut Melon may have been fueled by the sale of another Chardin painting at Artcurial in Paris in March last year. Then, Basket of Wild Strawberries (1761) sold to the Louvre for more than $25 million, setting the artist’s record.
Antivari, 39, is registered as a real estate investor in Saint Moritz, Switzerland, he’s not known within the Old Masters market, and his father is Luca Bassani Antivari, the founder of a luxury yacht company. However, Bloomberg reported last week that Antivari owes millions to his former business partner, Andrea Pignataro, who is the founder and CEO of London-based financial tech firm ION Group.
According to a Bloomberg report published last week, Antivari owed millions in an unpaid debt to his former business partner, the Italian fintech tycoon Andrea Pignataro. Antivari, Pignataro’s lawyers reportedly said in court filings, has “done a runner.”
The house has refused to comment—but, according to the legal filings, Christie’s asserts that it has been trying to convince Antivari to pay for the last six months. It also argues that the invoice was due to be cleared one week after the auction, and that Antivari promised several times to push through the transfer.
Antivari’s lawyer, Michele Micheli, has declined to comment on the case.