In June, Christie’s France announced a slew of records from the €26.7m sale of Jean Siméon Chardin’s masterpiece still life Cut Melon (1760), including “a world record for Chardin”, “the most expensive Old Master painting ever sold in France” and “the most expensive 18th-century work of art ever sold in France”. There’s just one problem: the work has not been paid for.
The still-life shows a cut melon among delicately painted peaches, apples and pears, as well as a pair of bottles, a jar and a bowl. It carries a prestigious provenance, having belonged to the collection founded in the 19th century by François Martial Marcille, before being bought in 1876 by Charlotte de Rothschild, the wife of baron Nathaniel de Rothschild. It has stayed in that family since. Before the sale, it was exhibited in May at Christie’s salesrooms in New York and Hong Kong.
The work smashed its €8m to €12m estimate. According to several informed sources, the under-bidder of Cut Melon was the Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. Its performance was likely boosted by the March 2023 sale at Artcurial in Paris of another eight-figure Chardin painting, Basket of wild strawberries (1761), which had made the artist’s record and sold to the Louvre for €24.3m.
Legal documents obtained by The Art Newspaper state that the hammer went down on a final bid from Nanni Bassani Antivari, previously unknown within the Old Masters market. Born in Milan, the 39 year-old Italian is registered as a real estate investor in Saint Moritz, Switzerland with a house in Monaco. He is the son of Luca Bassani Antivari, the founder of a luxury yacht company.
Christie’s is now taking Antivari to court in Paris for allegedly failing to pay for the work, demanding he make good on the full price of the work plus interest and penalty fees, amounting to €27.4m in total. The hearing is scheduled for Monday 16 December.
Both Christie’s France and its legal representatives have declined to comment. However, according to the legal document, the auction house has spent the last six months trying to negotiate with Antivari.
The documents state that the invoice was to be paid in full one week after the auction sale. The documents also state that Antivari promised several times to make the necessary arrangements.
In July, Antivari’s lawyer, Michele Micheli, wrote an email to Christie’s stating that his client “was willing to deposit the amount in escrow to a notary chosen by both parties”. Micheli also declined to comment on the case.
But Christie’s says it received no answer when it asked the reason for such a procedure. In August, Christie’s summoned Antivari to pay the whole sum immediately. His lawyer replied that he “acknowledged the late payment penalties for the invoice”. In September, Christie’s asked again for the payment, adding €195,000 in penalties. According to the auction house, in spite of its repeated demands, there has been no payment nor any explanation for the delays.
Last week, Bloomberg reported that Antivari owed millions in an unpaid debt to his former business partner, the Italian fintech tycoon Andrea Pignataro. Antivari “has putting it colloquially, done a runner”, Pignataro’s lawyers reportedly said in the court filings.
