Albert Einstein’s love letters and a slew of other pricey artwork are at the center of a nasty legal battle between Christie’s Auction House and a banking billionaire who owns Encyclopedia Britannica.
Jacqui Safra, 78, claims Christie’s sold off much of his cherished art collection at “fire sale” prices — to the tune of $37.5 million — in a dispute over a $63 million advance the auction house alleges he defaulted on, according to a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit from last week.
That included 55 letters that Einstein wrote to his eventual first wife, Mileva Marić, dated from 1989 and 1903 and which make up almost half of all of the renowned physicist’s correspondence up until 1903, the filing claims.
The letters were expected to sell for between $1.3 million and $2 million but instead fetched a measly $432,000 — or 35% of Christie’s lowest estimate of what they would go for. The sale price was also less than $442,500 that Safra originally bought them for from Christie’s in 1996, the court papers claim.
Safra — who has also financed eight Woody Allen films — claims his relationship soured with Christie’s after the auction house gave him the huge advance in 2022, backed by a slew of his personal art collection he claims is worth “well over $100 million,” the suit says.
He claims his agreement with Christie’s included the option for him to choose the order that his pieces sold in the hopes that the earlier works would repay the advance in full and he wouldn’t be forced to part with pieces that held more sentimental value for him.
By 2023, Christie’s notified Safra that he was in default of his advance — a fact which has been under dispute — and so it began selling off his pieces that the art house knew “carried particular personal value to Mr. Safra,” the filing claims.
Safra claims that to date, he’s repaid $45 million of the advance, with $37 million coming from the sales of his collection pieces and another $8 million payment made in cash.
He accuses Christie’s of fabricating the loan default as a pretense to speed up the sale of his works at a time when the industry and the auction house were struggling financially. He also claims they didn’t do proper marketing to ensure the works were sold at a good value.
“Christie’s actions represent a systemic betrayal of trust, wherein the world’s largest auction house manipulated its power over one of the most significant private collections of art and cultural artifacts in history,” the filing charges.
This is not the first legal dispute between Safra, a former owner of a Napa Valley vineyard that went bankrupt, and Christie’s. He sued the auction house in 2009 over the planned sale of other works but the company “made significant errors in creating the auction catalogs” and an English court barred the sale from going forward in that case.
“My client is a distinguished financier, philanthropist and art connoisseur who has stewardship of one of the world’s most important art collections, and his decision to pursue legal remedies in this matter did not come without considerable consideration, which underscores his principled approach to fairness, accountability, and justice in all his endeavors,” Safra’s spokesperson Melanie Bonvicino said in a statement to The Post.
Bonvicino said that Christie’s has “a duty to ensure that all dealing meet the highest professional standards.”
Safra is asking a judge to step in to stop a planned auction from going forward in February. Bonvicino says they hope Safra’s case will go before a judge some time next week.
A spokesperson for Christie’s maintained they didn’t breach the contract they struck with Safra.
“The property was sold in accordance with the agreement with Mr. Safra,” the statement said. “As this has now moved to litigation, we do not intend to comment further.”