The Tribunal Judiciaire de Paris has ruled that 135 paintings worth over €200m seized by the French authorities from leading Paris art authenticator ArtAnalysis include works that collector Uthman Khatib seeks to recover in German litigation proceedings against their thief and convicted Russian-Israeli criminal Mozes Frisch.
Frisch, along with Laurette Thomas, the owner of ArtAnalysis, and Olivia Amar, a supposed art collector, had claimed that the stolen paintings belonged to Frisch and to Amar. They sued Mr Khatib for the return of the paintings and a total of €29,350,000 in damages, plus legal fees.
Frisch, Thomas, and Amar made a total of 15 legal claims in their attempt to have the seizure of the art overturned and to have Uthman Khatib held liable for their seizure on both the substance of the dispute, and on a range of legal technicalities. The court rejected all 15 claims, and Frisch, Thomas, and Amar were ordered to bear the costs of the appellate proceedings and reimburse Uthman Khatib for his costs for the injunction.
The paintings will be held by the Paris court bailiff while a judgment is sought in Frankfurt am Main, Germany over these and hundreds of further paintings Mr Khatib believes stolen by Frisch, an allegation that Frisch has so far failed to contest on the facts.
Some of the paintings stolen from the Khatib family were not part of the seizure and had been sold by Frisch via auctions at Hammersite, the Israeli auction house, which was allegedly purchased by associates of Frisch and Amar in March 2024.
Mr Khatib was represented in court by Matthieu Ollivry, an avocat at the Paris bar.
Puni, Ivan Oil on canvas 69 x 46.5 cm 262
The judgment held: “All in all, Mr Uthman Khatib should be considered to have a claim arising from his ownership of works of art, which were appropriated by Mr Mozes Frisch, who has started to sell some of them.”
Ms Olivia Amar’s “claimed ownership is called into question by her silence when the said works were seized as part of a criminal investigation by the German police;” and by Ms Amar’s lack of involvement in previous disputes over ownership.
The court, inter alia, relied on a document from the German Federal Police, the BKA, saying: “Before 2013 the paintings were not in the ownership or possession of the Amar family, or anyone related to them. From our research, we can ascertain that the provenance given is falsified.”
Mr Castro Khatib, Uthman Khatib’s son, commented: “To steal my family’s paintings was already egregious, but then to sue my father for €30m because he is working to return the art to its rightful owners is unconscionable.”
“The court in Paris made the right decision, as did the Frankfurt courts, and we expect the courts in Tel Aviv will follow suit. When we have possession of our collection once more, it will be our turn to seek compensation.”
“The great sadness in the situation is that if these works had not been stolen by Mozes Frisch, my family’s plans to make the paintings available to the art world and the wider public for consideration and enjoyment would be much further advanced.”
Frisch, Thomas, and Amar retain the right to appeal the judgment.
Valuations of the paintings were undertaken by Doerr Dallas, an independent expert firm.
Main Image: Exter, Alexandra Work on paper 22 x 31 cm
Anna Melnykova, "Palace of Labor (palats praci), architector I. Pretro, 1916", shot with analog Canon camera, 35 mm Fuji film in March 2022.
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