The sons of a French pen magnate say their chauffeur walked into the family\u2019s Fifth Avenue apartment 20 years ago and walked out with a 15th-century Renaissance masterpiece.<\/p>\n
The \u201cunique and irreplaceable\u201d Italian painting ended up in the collection of a Chilean billionaire, according to a complaint filed in Manhattan Supreme Court last week. Now the three brothers want it back.<\/p>\n
While the inner dealings of New York\u2019s elite art collecting scene are typically shrouded from the public, the palace drama offers a rare glimpse \u2014 and the picture is not pretty. The Bich family\u2019s quest to reclaim the painting unfolds like a plotline out of \u201cSuccession,\u201d with the right-wing media scions replaced by the heirs to a pen and disposable razor fortune.<\/p>\n
The brothers are suing the painting\u2019s new owners and the estate of the dealer they say acquired it from the driver. Both the dealer and chauffeur have died since the time of the alleged heist. The Bich\u2019s legal team did not respond to questions for this story.<\/p>\n
The story laid out in the lawsuit begins in 1972, when Baron Marcel Bich, founder<\/a> of the Bic pen company, purchased Fra Angelico\u2019s \u201cSaint Sixtus<\/a>\u201d for 130,000 British pounds at Sotheby\u2019s.<\/p>\n Angelico, a Dominican friar, is widely regarded as one of the greatest painters of the early Renaissance. His pieces rarely come up for sale and fetch millions<\/a> of dollars at auction.<\/p>\n When Baron Bich died in 1994, he willed the Angelico to his son Bruno, according to court documents. Records show Bruno displayed the painting in his Fifth Avenue apartment and placed it in a trust to be inherited by his three sons, Charles, Gonzalve, and Guillaume.<\/p>\n But the brothers said at some point the work \u201cdisappeared\u201d from their father\u2019s home.<\/p>\n The family said in court records that they did not publicize the missing painting because they worried it would potentially lure other thieves to their apartment or cause the person in possession of the piece to better hide it. A spokesperson for the NYPD said there is no report on file about the theft.<\/p>\n The Bichs said their own investigation eventually led to the family chauffeur, Roy Morrow. They accuse him of entering Bruno Bich\u2019s apartment and stealing the Angelico \u201cin or around 2006.\u201d<\/p>\n Art dealer Richard Feigen acquired the painting for $3 million \u2014 a \u201cfire-sale\u201d price, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n Feigen, who died in 2021, was a prominent dealer and collector in New York for decades. According to a New York Times<\/a> obituary, Feigen\u2019s influence \u201cincluded brokering top-dollar deals of all sorts for museums and magnates while championing both old masters and new talent.\u201d<\/p>\n The Bich brothers have a lower opinion of Feigen. In their complaint they say the dealer should have been suspicious of Morrow, \u201ca company chauffeur with no art-collecting background, no documented means, and no plausible explanation for possessing a multimillion-dollar masterpiece.\u201d<\/p>\n Representatives for Feigen\u2019s company and his estate said the sale was perfectly legal, and rejected the Bich family\u2019s allegations \u201cin their entirety.\u201d<\/p>\n In a statement, the attorneys said \u201cMr. Feigen made no effort to hide the acquisition or ownership, and, indeed, loaned the work for widely-seen and reported public exhibitions<\/a> in both Europe and the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n Feigen\u2019s representatives also pointed to a 2021 affidavit where Bruno Bich accused his wife Veronique of giving the painting to Morrow herself and refusing her husband\u2019s demands to return it.<\/p>\n Public records show Morrow died in 2020.<\/p>\n Feigen consigned the painting to Christie\u2019s in 2018, according to court documents. That\u2019s where the brothers allege it was privately purchased for $5.4 million by Palestinian-Chilean billionaire \u00c1lvaro Saieh and his wife, Ana Guzm\u00e1n.<\/p>\n Saieh and Guzm\u00e1n maintain a globally renowned collection<\/a> of Italian Renaissance art. Saieh is the chair of Corp Group, one of Chile\u2019s largest conglomerates, and was once ranked on Forbes<\/a>\u2019 global billionaire list. Public records show he and Guzm\u00e1n have an apartment on East 57th Street.<\/p>\n The Bich brothers claim they first tried to settle the matter privately. But \u201cSaieh and Guzman have refused to return the work despite being informed that it was stolen,\u201d according to the complaint.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Saieh pushed back on the Bich family\u2019s claims.<\/p>\n \u201cWe acquired the artwork from Christie\u2019s in 2018, relying on the studies made by one of the world\u2019s leading auction houses,\u201d Corp Group general counsel Andr\u00e9s Winter Salgado said in a statement. \u201cWe will take all necessary steps to vigorously protect our rights and will respond through the appropriate legal channels.\u201d<\/p>\n A representative for Christie\u2019s said the company does not comment on lawsuits to which it is not a party.<\/p>\n The Bichs are now asking a judge to order the return of the painting and for the Feigen estate to surrender the millions of dollars of proceeds from the sale.<\/p>\n Attorneys for Saieh, Guzm\u00e1n and the Feigen organization have not yet filed a response in court.<\/p>\n This is not the first art-related dispute within the Bich family. In 2020 the website Artnet reported that Bruno Bich sued Veronique in Delaware state court<\/a>, alleging she refused to give up 28 works from their New York and Paris apartments, including a Warhol and a Picasso.<\/p>\n Court records show the couple divorced in 2021. Bruno Bich died the same year.<\/p>\n