Caravaggio Work Rocks Wildenstein Trial
A Caravaggio painting has become a prime example for the complicated financial situation of the billionaire French-American art-dealing dynasty, the Wildenstein family, in a long-running legal case in Paris over the estate of Daniel Wildenstein. (The Wildensteins gave us the plastic-surgery-mad “Catwoman” Jocelyne Wildenstein.) The Lute Player was discussed in court last week in a trial in which eight defendants, including Guy Wildenstein, the president of the New York art business Wildenstein & Company, are charged with tax evasion and money laundering. The French government estimates that the estate could owe at least $600 million.
