LONDON | Fri Jul 27, 2012 12:21pm EDT
LONDON (Reuters) - Auctioneer Christie's should return the sum of 1.5 million pounds ($2.4 million) paid by a wealthy Russian art collector for a painting that was probably fake, a High Court judge ruled on Friday.
Mr Justice Newey concluded that the painting, "Odalisque," which shows a nude woman asleep on a bed, was probably not painted by Boris Kustodiev, a Russian artist who has been compared with English painter L.S. Lowry.
The judge ruled that Christie's had not been negligent, but should return the money paid for the work to Avrora Fine Arts Investment, a firm run by Russian businessman Viktor Vekselberg, the Press Association reported.
"It follows that Avrora is entitled to cancel its purchase of the painting and recover the money it paid," the judge said.
Kustodiev, who lived from 1878 to 1927, was much better known in Russia than outside, the judge said, adding one art expert had suggested Kustodiev was "to the Russians what Lawrence Stephen Lowry is to the English in terms of affection in which he is held".
Vekselberg's company bought the painting at a Christie's auction in London in 2005.
The work had been described in the sale catalogue as "one of the best examples of Kustodiev's idea of the provincial merchant class", and displayed the inscription "B. Kustodiev - 1919".
But Avrora took legal action against Christie's when an art dealer expressed doubts that the painting was genuine.
An expert called by Christie's thought the painting was authentic, although "not one of Kustodiev's best works".
Christie's lawyers insisted that Odalisque was authentic and the auction house could not be blamed if the painting was no masterpiece.
(Reporting by Alice Baghdjian; editing by Steve Addison)
