TURIN – It is the attack on the empire of the Elkann. With a letter from his lawyer Dario Trevisan, sent this morning by registered post and with a certified e-mail, Margherita Agnelli de Pahlen in fact, it asks Fca Partecipazioni Spa, Stellantis Europe Spa (the Italian arm of the automotive giant) and the Dutch parent company Stellantis NV (listed on the New York Stock Exchange and on Euronext Milan and Euronext Paris) for information “in relation to the disappearance of works of art owned by him.” A sensational gesture, because it involves the multinational (born from the agreement that incorporated Fca-Fiat into Peugeot) of which the eldest son of his daughter is president Gianni AgnelliJohn Elkann, and why it fits into the legal battle (criminal and civil) around the legacy of Marella Caracciolowidow of the Lawyer, and – indirectly – to that of “Mr. Fiat” who passed away 21 years ago, on 24 January 2003. The text was also sent for information to the Dutch Autoriteit Fianciële Markt (AFM), the equivalent of our Consob .
In particular, Margherita’s new move concerns one of the chapters of the hereditary dispute: the Agnelli Collectionan extraordinary collection of at least 636 works whose value would exceed billion euros. Two years ago, the lawyer’s daughter presented a complaint to the Milan prosecutor’s office, contesting the disappearance of 13 paintings that were exhibited in three of Gianni Agnelli’s homes, the Villar Perosa residence, Villa Frescot in Turin and the attic of Palazzo Albertini-Carandini in Rome, in Piazza del Quirinale. On 23 February 2019, upon the death of her mother Marella who had the use of those homes, Margherita entered into full ownership of the properties, however contesting the absence of some works of art.
Now, it is asking for information from the three companies of the Stellantis Group on this circumstance, “repeatedly reported by the media”, and with particular reference to five executives: The Chamber by Balthus, the Pho Xai (son of the second Siamese ambassador Phra Naval) by Jean-Leon Gerome, the Glaçons, Effect blanc by Claude Monet, The farewell staircase by Giacomo Balla e Mysteries and melancholy of a street by Giorgio de Chirico.
The lawyer Trevisan explains in the letter that, as part of the criminal investigation by the Turin Prosecutor’s Office in which they are being investigated for tax crimes and fraud against the State John Elkannhis brothers Lapo and Ginevrathe family accountant Gianluca Ferrero and the Swiss notary Urs von Grünigen (executor and administrator of the hereditary assets of Marella Caracciolo), “the originals of some of the above-mentioned works of art owned by Margherita Agnelli have been found” and that it has been learned that “the place of discovery” is located at the headquarters of “FCA Partecipazioni – Lingotto Congress Centre”, in the historic former Fiat factory in Turin. In particular in the underground rooms “of the Congress Center Archive, on the -1 floor”.
At this point, here is the explicit request: “We reserve the right to adopt the measures we deem appropriate, towards Fca Partecipazioni and its bodies and/or its parent company Stellantis Europe and/or the parent company Stellantis NV (of which John Elkann is president) and which carries out management and coordination activities on them, we ask you from now on to provide documentation relating to the title on the basis of which Fca Partecipazioni holds works of art and assets belonging to third partiesincluding the originals of some of those owned by Margherita Agnelli which were the subject of disappearance.”
A twist, therefore, in the complex and controversial story of the Agnelli Collection, today at the center of investigations by both the Milan and Turin prosecutors: with partly divergent versions and findings. In fact, according to a note from the Guardia di Finanza of Milan, delivered two weeks ago to the deputy prosecutor of that city, Eugenio Fusco, the 13 paintings indicated by Margherita would not have been stolen from the dynasty’s Italian homes, but would have been donated by her grandmother Marella to the three grandchildren John, Lapo and Ginevra Elkann and would now be “traced and traceable” partly in the Lingotto vault and partly in Switzerland.
However, what emerges from the investigation by the Turin Prosecutor’s Office and the Financial Police, launched after a complaint by Margherita against her three children, is very different. A file (to which the Milan one will be attached in the next few days), which led the Turin prosecutors to investigate the three Elkann for the alleged “scams and tricks” implemented in order to build a “non-existent Swiss residence” for the grandmother. To exclude, say the prosecutors, her mother Margherita from her inheritance and to avoid paying inheritance tax in Italy.
In the seizures carried out last February 8, the financiers had also visited the Lingotto vault. The Everyday occurrence and the envoys of Reportsin a journalistic investigation conducted between Turin, Rome, and Switzerland, however, reconstructed that the Turin investigators found only two originals at the Lingotto, The Chamber of Balthus and the Pho Xai by Gerome, and instead three copies of modest value of as many masterpieces: the Glacons by Monet, The ladder of Balla and the Mystery and melancholy by De Chirico.
But where are the originals? According to the Elkanns, who responded to a request for information made by Vittorio Sgarbi when he was still undersecretary of Cultural Heritage and after access to the documents of Reports to the ministry, they would always be in Sant Moritz, in the Lawyer’s Swiss villa “Chesa Alcyon”. For the moment, the Turin Public Prosecutor’s Office is examining above all the events linked to Marella’s Swiss residence and any tax remains. But it is likely that at a later stage, after having already received an initial opinion from a consultant, the prosecutors will order an expert opinion to ascertain the exact dating of the copies. If it emerges, in fact, that they were made after 24 January 2003, the day of Gianni Agnelli’s death, then the investigations could extend to verifying when and how the originals may have left Italy for Switzerland, replaced with copies. Margherita Agnelli reiterates, however, that her works were stolen from her and that, possibly, will also request the nullity of the alleged donation to the children. Hence the new move which, implicitly, officially informs of the criminal investigation, which involves John Elkann (the president of the company), both the top management of Stellantis NV and the supervisory body of the Dutch stock exchange, the AFM, which the lawyer Trevisan asks to transmit, “to the extent of his competence”, the “timely response” on the presence of some paintings in the Lingotto vault.
A connection, the one between the various corporate roles held by John Elkann in the branches of the Exor empire and the Italian criminal investigations, which had already appeared in another recent letter from Trevisan on behalf of his client. The one sent to the American journalist Jennifer Clark who, in her book “The Last Dynasty”, in relation to Elkann’s leadership role in the simple company “Dicembre” (the family “safe” which ensures him primacy in Exor), had talked about a document from 1999, also signed by his mother Margherita, “which locks down the control of December… John will never lose decision-making power”. However, the opinion of the lawyer of the lawyer’s daughter was different and, in his clarification, he commented: “If a director of a simple company were convicted of tax crimes, he could also be banned from 6 months to 3 years, with consequent appointment of a new director”.
