Yves Bouvier<\/a>, a Swiss businessman and art world insider who pioneered the creation of freeports \u2013 sort of special \u201cduty free zones\u201d where the mega-rich can store assets and\/or sell them. Episode 1 explores how Bouvier became an adviser to Rybolovlev, helping him assemble what Dalsgaard calls \u201cthe most expensive art collection in private hands traded in this century.\u201d Rybolovlev and Bouvier got along terrifically \u2013 until they didn\u2019t. The relationship collapsed after the oligarch came to suspect the art dealer had helped himself to a tranche of his wealth, to the tune of $1 billion. Their ugly dispute wound up in court.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"Billionaire](\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-deadline-2019\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tBillionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tElk Film\/Pumpernickel Film<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThese two went to war,\u201d Dalsgaard tells Deadline over coffee at the posh Hotel Sanders in Copenhagen. \u201cSuddenly, the public got access to how these 38 masterpieces were traded, all their emails, their text messages, their invoices, how they use offshore accounts.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tA world designed to remain opaque emerged from the shadows.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe more we looked into the details of [the story], the more interesting it became. There were so many layers to it,\u201d Dalsgaard observes. \u201cThere were so many insights into how does this 0.00001 percent [the super-wealthy], how is their life really like? Now we have the Epstein Files, and we get this insight into how money and power and influence operate, which has been a big shock to many. And I guess you could even call this the Bouvier Files.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tSwiss businessman and art world insider Yves Bouvier.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tElk Film\/Pumpernickel Film<\/p>\n
\n\tBouvier is interviewed extensively in the series, defending himself.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cHe was hung out to dry all over the world as the biggest fraudster in the history of the art world. And he clearly felt that by telling his story, that would at a minimum add some nuances to that image, possibly even turn the [spotlight] on the other guy,\u201d Dalsgaard theorizes. He views what Bouvier had to say with healthy skepticism.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIf you look into the emails [between Rybolovlev and Bouvier], it\u2019s also clear Bouvier made great efforts to disguise his own role in those deals from his client or his buyer because at the center of this legal dispute is the question of, was he an agent or was he a buyer and seller?\u201d Dalsgaard explains. \u201cIf you buy and sell, you can charge whatever price the next buyer [will pay]. Whereas if he was an agent, he was helping Rybolovlev and should serve Rybolovlev\u2019s interests\u2026 It was never our goal to try to decide who was the villain. They\u2019re clearly somewhat gray-[area] characters, both of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tDirector Andreas Dalsgaard<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tElk Film\/Pumpernickel Film<\/p>\n
\n\tThe director adds, \u201cThis story is not just about the legal fight in court, it\u2019s also about who controls the narrative in the public.\u201d As such, viewers \u2013 as judges of what narrative to believe \u2013 become \u201csort of a party to this and shifting sympathies and trying to figure out sort of who\u2019s playing who.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAn eye-popping subplot takes the story to Trump territory in South Florida. The long friendship between the current president and the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein reportedly fell apart when they became rivals to acquire a multi-million-dollar property near Mar-a-Lago called, ironically, Maison de l\u2019Amiti\u00e9 (House of Friendship).<\/p>\n
\n\tThe falling out \u201cwas over the purchase of the house that we see in this story,\u201d Dalsgaard shares. Trump won the bidding war and later sold it to someone else. Guess who? \u201cRybolovlev buys it off Trump,\u201d Dalsgaard says, with Trump pocketing tens of millions of dollars in profit.<\/p>\n
\n\tThat fascinating part of the tale unfolds in part 3 of The Oligarch and the Art Dealer. The series was one of only two episodic projects accepted at Sundance. \u201cWe have distribution in 10 European countries and Australia and Hong Kong and BBC Russia even,\u201d Dalsgaard notes. So far, no deal for U.S. distribution has been reached, but there may be ample reason for optimism. <\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s a film series that has been so well received. Also, when we tested with an audience \u2014 and we\u2019ve done that multiple times both in the U.S. and in Europe \u2014 it really tests well on the level of entertainment, mystique, production value, and also the kind of insight it gives to the world,\u201d Dalsgaard comments. <\/p>\n
\n\tRegarding the potential for a U.S. distribution agreement, he says, \u201cFingers crossed it\u2019s going to happen soon.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s money in potash. A lot of it. Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev earned vast sums by mining the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":552454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[214386,49,48,214387,75,337,214388,214389],"class_list":["post-552453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-andreas-dalsgaard","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-dmitry-rybolovlev","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-the-oligarch-and-the-art-dealer","tag-yves-bouvier"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}