ST. PETERSBURG, February 21 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) – The Dzerzhinsky District Court of St. Petersburg has dismissed a claim by prominent art expert Yelena Basner, who had been earlier acquitted of fraud, demanding 1.5 million rubles (about $27,000) in compensation for expectation damages from the state, the Unified press office of the St. Petersburg courts has told RAPSI.

From April 2014 to January 2015, during investigation into the art expert, Basner placed under house arrest could not provide consulting services to Bukowskis auction house abroad under a signed contract, her lawyer said.

The court denied the motion and explained that Basner could receive compensation for the loss of salary, but not for the loss of expectation.

Basner, a former employee of the Bukowskis Auction House as well as the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, was investigated over a painting, “In restaurant”, attributed to Boris Grigoryev, a well-known Russian artist of the first half of the 20th century. The painting, which was allegedly examined by Basner in 2009 and sold for $250,000, was proven to be a fake in 2011.

The art expert was arrested on January 31, 2014. She was charged with large-scale fraud. On February 5, 2014, she was placed under house arrest. In January 2015, a court in St. Petersburg released Basner from the house arrest.
According to investigators, in the summer of 2009 Mikhail Aranson, who is now wanted by police, in collaboration with unknown co-conspirators invited Basner to the criminal conspiracy of selling the fake painting. Investigators allege that Basner made up a sham story about the painting’s history and found the buyer, a publisher Leonid Shumakov. He, convinced of the painting’s authenticity, proposed his close friend, St. Petersburg art collector Andrei Vasilyev, to buy the painting.

Eventually, Vasilyev bought the fake painting for €180,000 (11.8 million rubles at the current exchange rate), whereas its real price was 12,000 rubles (€180).

Prosecutors have asked the court to sentence Basner to 4 years in prison, impose a fine of 500,000 rubles (about $8,500 at the current rate) on her and order to pay the collector 16.5 million rubles ($280,000) in compensation.

However, Basner was found not guilty on May 17, 2016. The St. Petersburg City Court upheld her acquittal on August 11.