Valette was the Sotheby’s executive who dealt with Bouvier in the sale of the da Vinci and three other works that are the focus of the case. In each instance, Bouvier bought the works through Sotheby’s and then resold them to Rybolovlev at large markups. Rybolovlev says Bouvier tricked him by pretending to act as his art adviser in the transactions, even pretending to negotiate with phantom third parties when he was actually the owner of the works. He has argued that Valette understood what was going on and helped him. But for Rybolovlev, Valette is central to the argument that Sotheby’s was knowingly part of a scheme to defraud him out of hundreds of millions of dollars.

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Persons: Bouvier —, Valette, Bouvier, Vinci, Rybolovlev, Sotheby’s Organizations: Park West Locations: Manhattan, Sotheby’s