A US$100 million mystery: A Russian billionaire, his art, and his big losses

New York

IT WAS meant to be one of the world's top collections of 20th century art, anchored by Amedeo Modigliani nudes and Claude Monet water lilies.

But two years after Dmitry Rybolovlev sued his dealer, alleging he was overcharged by as much as US$1 billion, the Russian fertiliser magnate is unloading works he acquired at often record prices. He has already sold three for a loss totalling an estimated US$100 million, and is offering five more at Christie's auctions in London starting this week, some for a fraction of their purchase prices.

Mr Rybolovlev - whose fortune totals about US$9.8 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index - invested about US$2 billion in 38 works, from Leonardo da Vinci to Pablo Picasso. They were procured privately by Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier, better known for creating a network of tax-free art storage warehouses in Singapore and Luxembourg. Mr Rybolovlev was among new buyers from Russia, China and other emerging economies who drove an unprecedented expansion of the art market in the past decade. Booming wealth created a network of collectors hungry for trophies by top modern and contemporary Western art…