UK judge dismisses Russia sanctions case against Hauser & Wirth

A judge dismissed the criminal case accusing international mega-gallery Hauser & Wirth of breaching Britain’s Russia sanctions, ruling that prosecutors could not prove the buyer of a George Condo painting was connected with Russia.

Judge Tony Baumgartner at Southwark Crown Court in London quashed both counts on the indictment in a judgment handed down July 9. The ruling also dismissed the charge against the fine art logistics company Artay Rauchwerger Solomons, prosecuted with the gallery.

The charges accused Hauser & Wirth and the logistics firm of making a luxury good available to a person connected with Russia in breach of restrictions that took effect April 14, 2022.

The prosecution was the first of a company under Britain’s Russia sanctions regime and the first to test the luxury goods ban, Urgent Matter previously reported. HM Revenue and Customs investigated the case, and a 10-day trial was set for January 2028.

The buyer, named in the judgment as Alexander Popov, was not a designated person and was not subject to an asset freeze. The case hinged on whether he was “connected with” Russia, defined as ordinarily resident in or located in the country.

Prosecutors did not allege Popov was in Russia when the painting changed hands but argued he remained ordinarily resident there. Baumgartner found the evidence could not support that conclusion.

The judgment sets out a documentary trail of Popov’s departure from Russia after the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Records show he moved 23 paintings from Russia to Kyrgyzstan on April 15, 2022, and then to a warehouse in Yerevan, Armenia, two weeks later. He rented out his Moscow residence, the address on the gallery’s invoice, on May 1.

He entered agreements with a visa company in May and June 2022 to seek residence abroad, registered in Bosnia and Herzegovina on June 30, and leased an apartment there the next day, documents show. He also leased a property in Italy in August. In June 2022, he applied to renounce his Russian citizenship, a request denied the next April.

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UK ruling on Hauser & Wirth Russia sanctions case

The approved judgment was handed down at Southwark Crown Court on July 9, 2026.

Urgent MatterAdam Schrader

In an email to Zoe Sperling of Hauser & Wirth on June 8, 2022, quoted in the judgment, Popov wrote that he hated “the man (you understand) [Putin] who puts us in this position” and described being unable to sell shares or move currency abroad under sanctions.

“I hope that soon we can get out of all this and start a new life,” he wrote.

Eleven days later, he told Sperling he was transferring all his financial assets out of the country “to no longer be in these restrictions and continue to live freely as people live in other countries.”

Prosecutors pointed to Popov’s continuing links to Russia, records show. He held a Russian passport valid until 2026, owned two businesses in the same Moscow building, still owned the Moscow property, and was recorded in the city on dates in May and July 2022.

His wife worked as an art lecturer in Russia at least until September 2025, and as of early August 2022 the plan was to ship the painting to Moscow.

Baumgartner agreed that Popov still had strong ties to Russia. But he said that simply being Russian, having business interests there or having a long history there was not enough to establish that Russia was still his normal place of residence.

He wrote that the main argument was whether Russia remained “part of the settled and regular order” of Popov’s life. Based on the evidence, he concluded that it was not.

That finding effectively ended the case against Hauser & Wirth. Because Popov’s connection to Russia was a key part of the alleged offenses, the judge dismissed both counts.

The judge also rejected the defendants’ argument on a separate issue. Hauser & Wirth argued that the artwork had to be physically delivered to the recipient before it could legally be considered “made available.”

The gallery pointed to tax and insolvency cases, as well as guidance from the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, to support its argument.

Baumgartner disagreed. He said the rule does not require the artwork to be physically delivered in any particular place. Instead, the ban applies regardless of where the goods are handed over. Otherwise, he said, someone could simply receive the artwork outside Russia and then send it on to Russia, creating a loophole in the sanctions rules.

The painting, he found, was made available to Popov by August 26, 2022, when it was released into the shipping chain he directed.

The work at the center of the case, titled Escape from Humanity, had been sold before the invasion. Hauser & Wirth agreed the sale in July 2021 and invoiced Popov, at a Moscow address, that October. The gallery received final payment on July 27, 2022, documents show.

The painting was collected from the gallery’s warehouse on August 26, 2022, at Popov’s instruction and taken to Heathrow Airport for shipment to Yerevan. A UK Border Force officer stopped and seized the consignment on September 8, before it left the country. The air waybill listed a consignee, Dmitry Efimov, in the Armenian capital, not Russia.

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, which represented Hauser & Wirth, said in a statement it secured the dismissal and that the court found prosecutors could not establish the former customer was connected with Russia at the relevant time.

Artay Rauchwerger Solomons Limited entered voluntary liquidation in April 2024, Urgent Matter previously reported. Hauser & Wirth had said it disputed the charge and intended to plead not guilty.

Meanwhile, Condo is rejoining Hauser & Wirth less than a year after leaving the mega-gallery, even as website records showed at least three other names recently disappeared from its roster.

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