Prosecutors Clémence Radafshar and Marianne Frochot are proposing to limit the case to charges of commercial fraud and money laundering. At their request, Mathieu Ruffini, Jean-Charles Metiaz, and Mikaël Torjman, with whom Ruffini is currently involved in a financial dispute, should stand trial alongside Giuliano Ruffini.
The indictment is expected to be confirmed by a judge in the coming weeks, after which the trial, according to the prosecution’s estimates, could be scheduled as early as 2027. In December 2022, Ruffini was already charged in Paris in cases of gang-related fraud and money laundering; at that time, he was placed under a €1 million bail and judicial supervision.
The case against Ruffini has been ongoing since 2016, when the painting Venus, presented as a work by Cranach, was seized from the collection of Prince of Liechtenstein, and it later turned out that it had previously belonged to Ruffini himself. The scandal then spread to the Louvre, the National Gallery in London, and the Metropolitan Museum in New York, as well as Sotheby’s, Christie’s, and Dorotheum.
During the investigation, the prosecution is holding 13 works that, after expert examinations in the laboratory of French museums at the Louvre, the American Orion Analytical, as well as by Violène de Villemeur, Anna Tummers, and Gunnar Heydenreich, were recognized as forgeries. Among them are Venus, a portrait attributed to Frans Hals, “David meditating on the head of Goliath”, attributed to Orazio Gentileschi, a portrait of Cardinal Borgia believed to be the work of Diego Velázquez, as well as works attributed to El Greco, Correggio, Solario, and the Brueghels.
The prosecution claims that these works had no reliable provenance, and that Ruffini presented most of them as coming from the collection of French businessman André Borie. According to the investigation, Borie never owned an art collection, as confirmed by his grandson, former employees, and the notary who handled the estate; however, most of the owners of these items still consider them authentic.
In 2023, Mathieu Ruffini was also charged with money laundering; he was allowed to return to Italy on €200,000 bail. He himself told the judge that his father had used him as a front and that he was unaware of his affairs; however, the prosecution insists that his name appeared in separate transactions, that in 2021 he received €2.3 million from his father from the proceeds of the sale of the so-called Frans Hals portrait, and that through Swiss accounts he transferred to Lino Frongia up to $740,000, €100,000, and possibly £618,000.
The prosecution also agreed to drop charges over 18 other paintings because of the statute of limitations, lack of expert examination, and insufficient evidence against Ruffini. Among them was the painting “Saint Jerome”, sold by Sotheby’s and later shown at the Metropolitan Museum as a work by Parmigianino. Family lawyer Paul Le Fevre said that the exclusion of 18 works and the dropping of the gang charge only show the weakness of this case, and that his clients still consider themselves innocent.
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