Jaime Botin Is Sentenced to Prison in Picasso Smuggling Fiasco
- Santander chairman’s uncle fined $60 million, loses painting
- Authorities accuse him of planning to sell painting at auction
Jaime Botin, the uncle of Banco Santander SA Chairman Ana Botin, was sentenced to 18 months in prison and fined 52.4 million euros ($58 million) for smuggling a Pablo Picasso painting out of Spain.
Botin, former head of lender Bankinter SA and a member of the dynasty that has run Santander for more than a century, was found guilty of trafficking culturally important goods and ordered to hand over the artist’s “Head of a Young Woman” which is valued at 26 million euros. The painting was seized from Botin’s yacht in Corsica after he took it there in breach of court orders that it should stay in Spain.