Many examples of funded litigation involve high profile companies or sovereign states, with alleged scandals and injustices that can quickly dominate headlines. However, an ongoing European legal action may stand out above the rest, with a story so eventful that it sounds as if it could have been lifted from a Hollywood script, as a litigation funder is supporting a family’s efforts to recover stolen paintings worth hundreds of millions of euros.
A press release from the Khatib family provided an update on its legal battle to recover valuable paintings that were stolen from their collection, as French bailiffs and police conducted a raid on a storage facility in Paris. The raid was authorised by court orders issued in Paris, which follows the same pattern as raids conducted by German authorities following court orders issued in Frankfurt. The Paris raid reportedly recovered a ‘large number of paintings belonging to a collection of works of Russian Avantgarde stolen from the Khatib family.’
These raids are the result of a legal case that began following the December 2019 theft of around 1,800 paintings, valued in the hundreds of millions of euros, from Wiesbaden in Germany. Since the theft, the Khatib family have been pursuing legal action to recover the stolen artwork, with the litigation funded by Prague-based funder, LitFin, and led by Dentons’ offices in Frankfurt and Paris.
The press release included a statement from the spokesperson for the Khatib family, who said: “With the help of Dentons and LitFin, we will follow the perpetrators around the world. We will continue to recover our property and encourage anyone who considers buying works from the Russian Avantgarde to diligently check its provenance and make sure it is not a stolen piece belonging to our family”.
