Russian billionaire loses art fraud suit against Sotheby's over $160 million

Russian billionaire art collector Dmitry Rybolovlev lost a legal fight with Sotheby’s when a U.S. jury sided with the auction house

NEW YORK -- A Russian billionaire art collector lost a legal fight with Sotheby’s on Tuesday, when a U.S. jury sided with the auction house in a lawsuit over claims that the businessman was ripped off while assembling a trove of works that included a famous painting known as “the lost Leonardo.”

A New York federal jury deliberated for a few hours before reaching a decision in Dmitry Rybolovlev's case against Sotheby's, The New York Times reported. The fertilizer titan alleged that the auction house helped a Swiss art dealer cheat him out of over $160 million by quietly imposing huge markups on works that he acquired. Tearing up when he testified earlier this month, he said he'd not only lost money but trust.

Sotheby's maintained it knew nothing of any misconduct and said it had followed all legal, financial and industry standards. It cast the decision Tuesday as a mark of total vindication.

“Today’s ruling reaffirms Sotheby’s long-standing commitment to upholding the highest standards of integrity, ethics and professionalism in all aspects of the art market," the auction house said in a statement after the verdict.

However, Rybolovlev lawyer Daniel Kornstein said that “secrecy made it difficult to prove a complex aiding and abetting fraud case.”