Yves Bouvier
| Yves Bouvier | |
|---|---|
Yves Bouvier
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| Born |
8 September 1963 Geneva, Switzerland |
| Residence | Singapore |
| Nationality | Swiss |
| Occupation | CEO, Natural Le Coultre |
| Known for | Businessman and art dealer |
| Parent(s) | Jean-Jacques Bouvier |
Yves Bouvier (born 8 September 1963) is a Swiss businessman and art dealer best known for his role in the Bouvier Affair. He is the President of Natural Le Coultre, an international company specialized in the transportation, storage, scientific analysis, and conservation of works of art, luxurious goods and other collectibles. He transformed a small family company into the world's largest art shipping and storage business. In September 2017, it emerged that Bouvier is under criminal investigation by Swiss authorities amid allegations that he may have evaded more than 100 million euros in taxes related to his cross-border art dealings.
Yves Bouvier is the son of Jean-Jacques Bouvier, owner of Natural Le Coultre, a 150-year-old company specialized in moving and storing goods. Yves Bouvier early developed an interest art, and joined his father's company in the eighties.
Natural Transports was created in 1859, a moving and furniture storage company. It later became Natural Le Coultre in 1901, when Albert-Maurice Natural joined Emile-Etienne Le Coultre to create A. Natural, Le Coultre & Cie. In 1946, Jean-Jacques Bouvier begins and apprenticeship at Natural Le Coultre S.A. In 1983, the Bouvier family acquires Natural Le Coultre. In 1989, Jean-Jacques and Yves Bouvier create Fine Art Transports Natural Le Coultre SA in Geneva. Yves Bouvier became assistant manager in 1995 and then managing director in 1997, selling the moving and furniture storage activities to a local company focus the company on storing, moving and preserving pieces of art. Yves Bouvier moved to Singapore in 2009 where he currently resides.
In 2005, Yves Bouvier exports his business model abroad which consists of "artistic hubs" regrouping into Freeports facilities for rent and specific services dedicated to art collectors, museums and companies. eventually expanding into Singapore in 2010, and in 2014, opened a facility in Luxembourg. There are plans to open a Shanghai, China facility in 2017.
For many years, Bouvier was known primarily as an art transporter. However, after 2010, he began to be associated with art sales, including some controversial cases involving alleged irregularities. First, in 2012 Bouvier was connected to a legal case involving a Canadian collector called Lorette Shefner. Shefner’s family claim that she was the victim of a complex fraud, whereby she was persuaded to sell a Soutine painting at a price far below market value, only to see the work later sold to the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC for a much higher price.
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