In the end, Jaime Botín will not enter prison. The criminal court has granted the financier the benefit of the suspension of the three-year prison sentence that was imposed by a crime of contraband, having tried to sell out of Spain the painting of Picasso head of young woman without authorization Necessary from the Ministry of Culture.
The court in charge of executing the sentence has agreed to apply to booty article 80.4 of the Criminal Code, which allows to suspend compliance with the penalty due to 'the serious illness you suffer, with incurable suffering.'
By overcoming two years, the condemnation imposed was not susceptible of conviction except in exceptional situations such as applied. The Judicial Body has adopted this decision after the evaluation carried out by the forensic physician assigned to courts, as stated in the resolution.
Despite not entering prison, the case has cost him expensive to the financial. The conviction included the payment of a 91.7 million fine 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 sentence, although it came to propose the state's advocacy, it was the confiscation of the scholarship owned by Botín in which the work was found.
From the operation of the 2015 Civil Guard, in collaboration with the French police - the picture was seized in Corsica, "the painting is stored at the Reina Sofía Museum.
Justice considered proven that in 2013 the shareholder of Bankinter agreed to auction the work in Christie's and asked the authorization to culture to sell the work outside of Spain, a process required by the Spanish Historical Heritage Law having fulfilled the work 100 years. After receiving a refusal, Botín reacted, claiming that the request had been erroneous and that the painting could not be considered in Spain.
"Despite being fully aware of the administrative prohibition," explains the judge, "the defendant moved the picture to the ADIX schooner of his property, docked in the month of June in the port of Valencia, with the purpose of taking it out of Spain, Given your captain to hide it to the authorities. "
The work was found in Calvi (Corsica), packed and saved in the captain's cabin. Booty had hired an air transport company to move with the work to Geneva (Switzerland). On July 30, French customs services, knowing that the departure permission was being processed, inspected the schooner and intervened the work.
Botín tried that the Supreme Established that the exit of Spain of the work did not require the authorization of culture, but the Contentious-Administrative Room rejected its appeal.
Date Of Update: 08 November 2021, 11:15
