Further to our earlier post, on 9 July, the charges against the art gallery Hauser & Wirth, and art logistics company Artay Rauchweger were dismissed on the basis of a pre-trial application. The dismissal was first reported by GIR behind a paywall.
The charges related to an allegation that the gallery sold a painting to a “person connected with Russia”. The relevant statutory definition (in regulation 19A(2)(a) of the UK’s Russian sanctions regulations), is that the person must be either “ordinarily resident in Russia” or “located in Russia”. The focus for the court was the first test.
The judge held that a properly directed jury would be unable to find that there was sufficient evidence that the buyer of the artwork was “ordinarily resident” in Russia at the time of the sale in July and August 2022.
The prosecution produced evidence of a continuing connection to Russia, but the judge is reported to have held that “the statutory test is not one of continuing connection, nationality or association, but ordinary residence”.