In the end, Jaime Botín will not enter prison.

The Criminal Court has granted the financier the benefit of suspending the sentence of three years in prison that was imposed on him for a crime of smuggling, for having tried to sell Picasso's painting

Head of a Young Woman

outside of Spain

without authorization necessary from the Ministry of Culture.

The court in charge of executing the sentence has accepted to apply article 80.4 of the Penal Code to Botín, which allows suspending the execution of the sentence due to "the serious illness he suffers, with incurable ailments."

Upon exceeding two years, the sentence imposed was not subject to conviction except in exceptional situations such as the one applied.

The judicial body has adopted this decision after the evaluation carried out by the forensic doctor assigned to the Courts, as stated in the resolution.

Despite not going to prison, the case has cost the financier dear.

The conviction included the payment of a fine of 91.7 million that he has already paid.

In addition, the painting was seized, which has become the property of the State.

What was not included in the conviction, although the State Attorney's Office proposed it this way, was the confiscation of the schooner owned by Botín in which the work was found.

Since the Civil Guard operation in 2015, in collaboration with the French police - the painting was seized in Corsica - the painting is stored in the

Museo Reina Sofía

.

The Court considered it proven that in 2013 the Bankinter shareholder agreed to auction the work at Christie's and requested authorization from Culture to sell the work outside of Spain, a procedure required by the Spanish Historical Heritage Law after the work had completed 100 years.

After receiving a refusal, Botín reacted by claiming that the request had been erroneous and that the painting could not be considered to be in Spain.

"Despite being fully aware of the administrative prohibition," explains the judge, "the defendant transferred the painting to the schooner

Adix

of his property, docked in June in the port of Valencia, in order to get it out of Spain, instructing his captain to hide it from the authorities. "

The work was found in Calvi (Corsica), packed and stored in the captain's cabin.

Botín had hired an air transport company to move the work to Geneva (Switzerland).

On July 30, the French customs services, upon learning that the exit permit was being processed, inspected the schooner and intervened the work.

Botín tried to get the Supreme Court to establish that the exit from Spain of the work did not require authorization from Culture, but the Contentious-Administrative Chamber rejected his appeal.

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