INFO EUROPE 1
This is a strange story that reveals Europe 1: that of a judicial wrestling around a painting of the French painter Yves Klein. A Paris lawyer is believed to have extorted a canvas, estimated at several million euros, to one of her clients, now 80 years old. The old lady complained and the Paris prosecutor's office has just opened an investigation, entrusted to the judicial police.
A painting offered by the artist in 1956
It is a blue canvas, of this hue to which Yves Klein gave his name, which measures 80 centimeters by 1 meter 20. This painting was offered, in 1956, by the artist himself to a girl then aged 17 years old. Today, this woman is 80 years old and worries about not knowing what the work of art has become. The old lady then suspects her former lawyer. Two years ago, the lawyer proposed to keep the painting herself, claiming that it might otherwise be stolen or damaged.
A value that could reach 20 million euros
Since then, the lawyer has dodged all requests for restitution. She claims in particular to have entrusted the blue canvas Yves Klein to a specialized company, which has not found trace of the work. The lawyer finally deposited the painting in another of these secured companies and then declared himself the owner of the work. As proof, she brandishes some handwritten lines of a mail by which the old lady would have given him the painting. The octogenarian swears that this mail is a fake and only dreams of one thing: find this blue Klein, a new work that, according to several experts, could reach 20 million euros.