83-year-old billionaire Jaime Botín, of the Spanish banker family that runs Santander Group, was sentenced to 18 months in prison and fined €52.4 million ($58 million) for “smuggling cultural property”.
Botín had called on Christie's London in 2012 to sell Head of a Young Woman, a painting by Pablo Picasso then estimated at 26.2 million euros ($29 million). The Spanish government, however, refused to export the work because it was declared a national treasure.
In 2015, Botín asked his driver to drive the painting from Madrid to Valencia, where his yacht Adix was about to set sail for Corsica. Authorities seized the work aboard the yacht during a search in July of the same year. The captain of the yacht is said to have "omitted" the painting in the list of works on board. Botín had then planned to take it aboard a private jet from Corsica to Geneva to sell it.
During the trial held last November, the prosecution had requested the seizure of the painting and Adix, a fine of 100 million euros and a sentence of 4 years in prison.
According to the El Confidencial website, the defense of Botín, supervised by ex-judge of the National Court Javier Gómez Bermúdez, affirmed that the painting was almost never in Spain except on a few occasions, like the marriage of Botín's daughter in 2003, where the work was framed. He added that Botín intended to bring Head of a Young Woman to Geneva to keep it, not to auction it off.
The judgment rendered last Thursday, January 16, in Madrid sentences Jaime Botín to 18 months in prison, a fine of 52.4 million euros, payment of court costs and the seizure of the work for the benefit of the state. "Although fully aware of the administrative ban, the defendant transferred the painting to [his yacht], moored in Valencia, in order to export [the painting] from Spain", said judge Raquel González Bayón.
Spanish heritage laws stipulate that any work of art over 100 years old that is considered culturally important can be declared a National Treasure and requires any owner to obtain a permit before taking the work out of the country.
The portrait was painted by Picasso in the early 1900s, when he was only 24 years old, during his Gosol period. Botín acquired it in 1977 in London. The work has been kept in the collection of the Reina Sofia museum in Madrid for the last four years and will remain there until the authorities decide on its new home.
