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“I understand he was trying to sell them,” Valette said of Bouvier. “I didn’t understand that he was buying them on behalf of anybody.”
During Valette’s testimony on Wednesday, he was asked about an insurance valuation that Sotheby’s had provided for the da Vinci in 2015, after Bouvier had begun to suspect that he had paid large markups on the works he had purchased through Bouvier.
In the document, which was forwarded to Rybolovlev, the insurance valuation of the painting was increased despite the initial reservations of a Sotheby’s colleague, according to court papers, and the accompanying cover letter was edited to delete a reference to Bouvier’s earlier acquisition of the artwork.
Rybolovlev has argued that those changes were meant to help Bouvier conceal his alleged scheme.
Valette acknowledged on the stand that he had made the changes at Bouvier’s request. But he said they were the kinds of changes Sotheby’s would make for any high-end client and that eventually he had only gone with a valuation that had been approved by other Sotheby’s experts.
“I didn’t think about it, to be fair,” Valette said. “He asked for these two minor changes.”
He was also asked why, in the case of a Modigliani sculpture that Rybolovlev bought from Bouvier, he had revised an estimated value upward. Originally, he told Bouvier in a 2012 email that the artwork was worth at least 70 million to 90 million euros, or perhaps even more, only to revise that estimate to €80 million to €100 million less than 12 hours later. Bouvier forwarded the higher projection to Rybolovlev’s aide. Valette said the adjustment had been made because Bouvier had wanted him to be more specific.
“He wanted me to precise my thoughts,” he said.
Colin Moynihan contributed reporting.
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