Luxembourg Freeport Overshadowed by Bouvier-Rybolovlev Dispute

The Wall Street Journal posts a brief video on the Luxembourg Freeport raising yet again concerns about the facility’s use and reminding the public of Yves Bouvier’s troubles with Dimitri Rybolovlev. (Watch here.) Update: The story is now out from the WSJ on the scandal’s effect on the Freeport’s business:

“We’re behind on our objectives, as a result of all of this mess,” Mr. Arendt said in an interview in May, as he sat in an empty showroom at Le Freeport. On Wednesday, Mr. Arendt sounded hopeful that the bad publicity had faded. “We’re more or less on track,” he said, though “we’ve had a lot of explaining to do.” Mr. Arendt said Mr. Bouvier has no role in running the freeport.

In the art market, “reputation is pretty much all you have,” said Harco van den Oever, who runs London-based Overstone Art Services.

About 60% of Le Freeport’s storage space has been rented to the firms that deal directly with collectors and store their art at the building, according to Mr. Arendt. The biggest of those firms, FineArt Logistics Natural Le Coultre SA, which accounts for roughly half of that rented space, is Mr. Bouvier’s company, and has so far only filled about 15% of its available square footage.

Art Dealer’s Woes Put Scrutiny on High-End Storage Facility  (WSJ)