Did he own it or did the government?
If he owns it then he should be free to sell it, or burn it, if he wants to.
A billionaire art collector has been fined £44million and sentenced to 18 months in prison for trying to smuggle a Picasso out of Spain on his yacht.
Jaime Botin, 83, the great grandson of the founder of Spain's largest bank Santander, was rumbled by French customs when his yacht arrived on the island of Corsica in 2015.
They discovered Picasso's ‘Head of a Young Woman’, a 1906 painting valued at £22million, stowed away on the vessel by the ship's captain.
Prosecutors argued Botin had been attempting to sell it abroad, in breach of rules over paintings of cultural significance to Spain. But Botin denied the charges and claimed he was simply taking it to Switzerland for safe-keeping.
Despite this, the court said, Botin took the painting to the Mediterranean port city of Valencia and ordered the captain of his yacht to ‘hide it from authorities’.
The painting resurfaced in 2015 when French customs, working in tandem with Spanish authorities, discovered it in the yacht captain's cabin during a stopover in Corsica.
The verdict, which can be appealed, also transferred ownership of the painting to the Spanish state.
The fine is twice the "value" of the painting?
Looks like Euro authorities take their government by fascism seriously.