The court will begin hearing if the drawing of a martyred Saint Sebastian lashed to a tree is allowed to leave France for eventual purchase by a foreign buyer.
The piece was among several drawings and engravings that the owner, Jean B, received as a gift from his father for passing his medical school exams in 1959. The young doctor put it aside and promptly forgot about it for over half a century.
Jean B, who asked not to be fully named, stumbled across the box of drawings in 2016 and gave them to the Tajan auction house to have them valued.
The head of Tajan’s Old Masters department, Thaddee Prate, quickly identified the hand of a master, without specifying who, and valued it at between €20,000 and €30,000.
Another expert, Patrick de Bayser, concluded that the two-sided drawing – the other side is inscribed with scientific studies of candlelight – was by none other than da Vinci, an opinion backed by a third specialist, Carmen Bambach of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
‘A national treasure’
In an instant, the work’s estimated value rocketed, reaching between €8 million and €12 million.
The French government quickly stepped in, designating the drawing a “national treasure” and giving itself 30 months to acquire it on behalf of the Louvre museum, home of the Mona Lisa.
An offer of €10 million from the state duly followed, but with a new valuation estimating it at €15 million, Jean B refused.
But the affair did not end there. Jean B promptly applied for an export permit to sell the drawing to a foreign buyer. The culture ministry refused, claiming that the drawing may in fact have been stolen.
Today, the retired doctor will ask the court to order culture minister Roselyne Bachelot and a senior official in charge of art collections to allow the drawing to leave France.
Jean B’s lawyer, Olivier Baratelli, termed the government’s handling of the painting’s discovery as “catastrophic”.
“A culture ministry worthy of its name would have ensured the French state acquired such a drawing,” he argued.
Jean B has also fallen out with Tajan. Saying he learnt through the media of their plans to put the drawing up for auction without his consent, he revoked their sale mandate.
Baratelli claimed that Tajan had been “intoxicated” by the prospect of a hefty commission after the sale of “Salvator Mundi” attributed to da Vinci, which set a record for the most expensive painting ever sold at auction in 2017 when it was acquired by the Saudi royal family for US$450 million at Christie’s.
Tajan has sued Jean B to the tune of €2 million for breach of contract, asking that he compensate the auction house for all the work it carried out on his behalf.