Andreas Dalsgaard and Christoph Jörg Unveil Art’s Biggest Scandal

For more than a decade, the bitter rivalry between a Russian oligarch and a Swiss shipping tycoon-cum-art dealer has been played out in the courts, magazines and art world gossip. Broad episodes of the story are often repeated: Dmitry Rybolovlev filed lawsuits worldwide accusing Yves Bouvier of defrauding him by raising the prices of works of art he acquired for the collector between 2003 and 2014, charging him more than $1 billion at times for the Gogh, the most famous Vincent 38, including Vincent. Amadeo Modigliani and Pablo Picasso. What has been left out of the headlines, however, is the infrastructure—global tax loopholes and art world “smart” policy—that made the so-called Bouvier Affair possible in the first place.

Oligarch and Art Dealera new documentary series co-created by Andreas Dalsgaard and Christoph Jörg whose pilot premiered at Sundance, delves into this closed-off world, promising an allegedly multibillion-dollar gaming account. The two met and did The Lost Leonardoa 2021 documentary that traces the discovery and subsequent sale of a painting attributed to Leonardo da Vinci—purchased by Bouvier Rybolovlev. It was during the recording of the The Lost Leonardo that Bouvier expressed a desire to tell his side of the argument.

“After years and years of being hung out to dry as the biggest fraud story in art history, he wanted to tell his story—to set the record straight,” Dalsgaard, who is also directing the series, told the Observer. “And for us, this was a unique opportunity to have someone who was not just an insider in the art world. He may have been the greatest art dealer of all time.”

The filmmakers quickly realized that this story was more than just a high-profile feud between two very rich men. It provided a window into how the art world operates within global power structures. “I’ve always been amazed at how the art market works, especially at the end,” says producer and producer Jörg. “Who are the entertainers? Who are the actors behind the scenes? How are art and power connected? These are the subjects I’m interested in, and this one was not trivial.”

Bouvier speaks on record throughout the series, charting his rise alongside his relationship with Rybolovlev and situating both men in the rapidly changing art market. Before turning to art, Bouvier transformed his family’s shipping business, Natural Le Coultre, into a renowned art transportation and storage company. It has become the largest tenant in the Geneva Freeport, a facility that allows works of art to remain tax-free and is therefore favored by the international elite. It was there that Bouvier met Rybolovlev, a secretive Russian millionaire and budding art collector who had moved to Switzerland and was trying to break into the high, exclusive levels of the market.

Bouvier was dubbed the “king of the free port,” a moniker that, to Dalsgaard, reflected the influence he wielded. “A character like Bouvier was not only a great art dealer,” he said, “but he also created the infrastructure of this method to use art to hide money, or to keep money through art.” Rare footage shot inside the Geneva Freeport itself gives viewers a glimpse of what author Oliver Bullough has described as “Moneyland,” mysterious, out-of-this-world places where wealth is barred from public view.

Oligarch and Art Dealer reveals how the “understanding” propaganda that pervades the art market operates beyond good practice. It was under this banner that Bouvier and Rybolovlev began to work together, with Bouvier acting as the most important intermediary who ensured that the sellers and Rybolovlev never communicated directly—an arrangement that would later prove to be at the heart of the dispute. (In fact, this “seeing” obscured the scale of Bouvier’s markups.) In a market designed to facilitate the movement of large sums of money with minimal processing, the line between privacy and concealment is easily blurred. “Wisdom is a polite way of talking about something that’s essentially a secret. And who needs secrets?” Dalsgaard asked. “Usually, it’s people who don’t want the world to see what they’re doing.”

At the heart of the dispute is the question of whether Bouvier’s “insight” amounts to deceiving his client. In 2015, after Rybolovlev discovered that Bouvier had pocketed the $25 million Modigliani had received for him, the oligarch accused his art dealer of fraud and money laundering, starting an international legal battle.

Famously, Rybolovlev does not appear on camera in the series, but his perspective on events is revealed through interviews with his lawyer and his former financial director. According to the filmmakers, the inclusion of these figures against Bouvier’s narrative enabled them to set competing versions of events. “Sometimes, you think Bouvier is a scoundrel, sometimes you think he’s a very smart businessman. And even those opinions keep changing,” Dalsgaard said. “Our sensibilities kept changing… From a filmmaker’s point of view, excitement was asking, ‘How can we put the audience in that situation?

The series is informed by the wealth of new information revealed in recent court cases, particularly the Russian oligarch’s case against Suthu. Rybolovlev accused the auction house of conspiring with Bouvier to hide his markups, although a US federal judge ruled against him in 2024. In an art world dominated by secrecy, the case provided Jörg and Dalsgaard with a wealth of material that helped them reconstruct a detailed timeline of events and shape the series. “We had access to all those legal documents—emails, invoices, text messages, ten years of communication between these three organizations. [Rybolovlev, Bouvier and Sotheby’s]. That’s something you won’t see,” said Dalsgaard. “How are these deals made? How does the auction house work in partnership or cooperation with art dealers? All of that is here for us to see.” For filmmakers, in addition to confirming or disproving certain claims, these documents reveal the opaque mechanics beneath the surface of the art market.

Revealing that the machines were central to Jörg and Dalsgaard’s wider ambition. “You have to understand that you are part of a multi-billion dollar game—even as spectators, you are part of that game, because they are the ones who want to have an impact to affect public opinion,” said Jörg. “Exposing that play to the audience was a big part of the storytelling.” They hope that, instead of giving the final decision, Oligarch and Art Dealer shows that the buying and selling of art is a vehicle within a much larger system of finance and power.

“It’s a world like the movies The Tenet or similar series Billions or Successionbut to see it in a documentary—that doesn’t really happen.” He and Jörg believe that meeting this world in a documentary way will force viewers to see how art is embedded in wealth management systems that remain unregulated and invisible.