[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-618579236.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tThe heirs of the Bic family fortune filed suit in March for the return of a painting by Fra Angelico that sold at Christie\u2019s for $5.4 million in 2018. That sale was only possible, the heirs allege, because a chauffeur for the family had stolen the work, then sold it to a prominent art dealer who then consigned it to the auction house.<\/p>\n
\n\tThere is no publicly listed record for the painting on the website for Christie\u2019s, which is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit, potentially indicating that the piece may have been sold privately. Instead, the defendants are the executors of the estate of dealer Richard L. Feigen, who allegedly consigned the painting before his death, as well as Chilean billionaire \u00c1lvaro Saieh and his wife Ana Guzman, whom the suit claims bought the work at Christie\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe suit was filed on March 19 in the Supreme Court for the State of New York. According to the suit, the painting, titled Saint Sixtus<\/em> (ca. 1453\u201355), was purchased by Bic founder Baron Marcel Bich in 1972. After he died, the painting then went to his son Bruno, who hung it in his New York apartment.<\/p>\n \n\tRoy Morrow, the family\u2019s chauffeur, \u201cstole\u201d the painting, the suit claims. \u201cBruno did not know the Work had been stolen,\u201d the suit alleges. \u201cHe only knew that the Work had disappeared. For years, he repeatedly asked Veronique, his wife, where the Work had gone; each time, she evaded his questions or provided inconsistent explanations. Bruno never learned the details of Morrow\u2019s theft before passing away.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe suit claims that Feigen, a well-known dealer of Old Masters paintings who died in 2021, agreed to sell the work, adding that Morrow allegedly failed to provide sufficient documentation. Feigen did so because he was \u201cwillfully blinded by dollar signs,\u201d the suit says. Morrow allegedly sold the work for $3 million, a \u201cfire-sale price,\u201d according to the suit.<\/p>\n \n\tThe Bic heirs say they \u201cdiscovered\u201d that the work was owned by Saieh and Guzman in 2023, though the suit does not state how they arrived at such a realization. The suit refers to a 2024 investigation into the whereabouts of the painting, but that inquiry is also not detailed in the complaint. <\/p>\n \n\tThe New York Police Department told Gothamist<\/em> that no one reported the painting as stolen.<\/p>\n \n\tAccording to the suit, in 2024, the heirs \u201cdemanded that Saieh and Guzman return the Work. They refused to return the Work and have therefore intentionally exercised dominion and control over the Work in denial of and inconsistent with Plaintiffs\u2019 rights.\u201d<\/p>\n ARTnews<\/em> was unable to reach a representative for Saieh, who owns more than 100 works dating to between the 13th and 16th centuries, according to a 2022 Art Newspaper<\/em> profile. In that profile, Saieh mentioned owning a work by Fra Angelico.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe acquired the artwork from Christie\u2019s in 2018, relying on the studies made by one of the world\u2019s leading auction houses,\u201d Andr\u00e9s Winter Salgado, general counsel for CorpGroup, the company run by Saieh, said in a statement to Gothamist<\/em>. \u201cWe will take all necessary steps to vigorously protect our rights and will respond through the appropriate legal channels.\u201d<\/p>\n ARTnews<\/em> has also reached out to collector Michael Steinhardt, who is listed as a defendant in his alleged capacity as an executor of Feigen\u2019s estate, for comment.<\/p>\n \n\tIn a statement to Bloomberg<\/em>, Luke Nikas, a lawyer for the Bic heirs, said, \u201cSaieh possesses stolen artwork, and Feigen\u2019s estate possesses funds Feigen wasn\u2019t entitled to receive. They should do the right thing and turn over the painting and the funds to their rightful owners.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/bic-heirs-lawsuit-stolen-fra-angelico-painting-1234779832\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-618579236.jpg?w=1024″] The heirs of the Bic family fortune filed suit in March for the return of a painting by Fra Angelico that sold at Christie\u2019s for $5.4 million in 2018. That sale was only possible, the heirs allege, because a chauffeur for the family had stolen the work, then sold it to a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1865048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1865048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1865048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1865048\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1865048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1865048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1865048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}