Leon Black Gets Disputed Picasso Bust; Maya Widmaier Pays Compensation to the Qataris?

That Leon Black ends up the owner of the Picasso sculpture that was disputed by Guy Bennett’s Pelham Holdings and his clients, the Qatari royal family.

What’s surprising is that the Qataris were not able to assert their priority by matching the price paid by Leon Black. Instead, they’re walking away with compensation. The question is from whom the compensation comes? Black? Gagosian, Maya Widmaier?

Update: Katya Kazakina answers that question:

Widmaier Picasso paid Pelham an undisclosed price as part of the settlement, according to Jo Backer Laird, an attorney for Pelham at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler.

Here’s Robin Pogrebin on the settlement:

On Wednesday, the parties who had been fighting over the plaster bust of the artist’s muse (and mistress) Marie-Thérèse Walter, announced that they had agreed that Mr. Black would get to keep the work, “Bust of a Woman,” and a rival owner, representing the Qatari royal family, would receive financial compensation of an undisclosed amount.

“We are pleased that the dispute” has been settled “and Mr. Black will receive his sculpture,” Larry Gagosian, the gallery owner, said in a statement. “Today’s settlement shows without question that the Gagosian Gallery purchased and sold this sculpture in good faith.”

Picasso Sculpture in Dispute Goes to Leon Black; Rival Owner to Receive Compensation  (The New York Times)