A tale of an Italian Princess, a Gauguin painting and a £100 million inheritance battle sounds like something completely fantastical – and that’s even before you throw in the film star mother (whose credits include a Federico Fellini film). But it’s all absolutely true and on 22 December, a Royal Court on the Channel Island of Jersey ruled Princess Camilla Crociani de Bourbon des Deux Siciles had ignored a court order and that she must pay a £2 million fine.
The fine wasn’t a complete surprise, she was forewarned by the court on 16 November 2020 that she could be fined ‘millions’ for contempt of court after refusing to reveal the whereabouts of a £50 million Gauguin painting (called Hina Maruru).
Months on, the Princess may have lost the first appeal but her legal team say they have filed a further six and the court will hear the arguments in May 2021 when it sits to consider the fine made against her on 22 December. The Princess is confident that she has strong grounds for the appeal and will be able to successfully reclaim these funds after the hearing in May.
As reported in the Daily Mail , Princess Camilla had lodged an appeal against the fine, by claiming that she 'does not have immediate access to £2 million'. She requested an 'application of stay' – a suspension of proceedings – in relation to the order. But in rejecting her appeal, the court pointed out that the Princess had been aware for some time that a heavy fine was a possibility.
In a recently published judgement, the Court of Appeal said: 'She has known since 25 February 2020 that the court was considering the imposition of a substantial fine. She has known the exact amount of the fine since 22 December 2020. In the circumstances, she has had every opportunity to provide evidence regarding her financial resources, both revenue and capital, both liquid and illiquid.'
In the document, the court adds that it believed that the timescale to pay the fine, as well as the cost of compensating more than £200,000 of BNP's legal costs, was ‘entirely reasonable’. Jonathan Crow QC, Lord Anderson of Ipswich QC and David Perry QC were sitting.
The family feud began when Italian film star Edoarda Crociani (who many will remember as Edy Vessel) set up a trust fund – the Grand Trust – for her two daughters, Cristiana and Princess Camilla, when they were teenagers in 1987. Edoarda was the widow of an extremely wealthy Italian industrialist, Camilla Crocianai, who died in 1980. He had amassed considerable wealth, including a collection of fine art.
As reported by the Telegraph , when £100 million of investments and art was taken from the fund in 2010 and transferred into Edoarda’s name, estranged daughter Christiana feared she was being blocked from inheriting the family’s wealth and it was being given to her sister in place. Christiana began legal proceedings in 2011 and claimed that her luxurious upbringing had been a ‘golden hell’ and that she had been ostracised by her mother, a woman obsessed with her marrying into royalty, namely the Italian Prince Bante Boncompagni Ludovisi — a relationship that lasted for just four months.
In 2017, the Telegraph reports that the Royal Court ordered Edoarda and bank BNP Paribas Jersey Trust Corporation Limited, who were both trustees, to rebuild the fund, which includes Gauguin’s 1893 masterpiece that is insured for £49.9 million. Christiana’s sister, Camilla Crociani – whose title became Princess de Bourbon de Deux Siciles following her marriage to Prince Carlo, Duke of Castro (an event that the Times described as the ‘blue-blooded wedding of the decade’) – was ordered to disclose details of her mother’s wealth to BNP.
Princess Camilla, 49, who lives between Monaco, St Tropez, Paris and Rome with her husband and two daughters, however, has allegedly refused to disclose the locations of the painting and other precious assets. Advocate William Redgrave, acting on behalf of BNP, said that artwork and expensive jewels were examples of assets not submitted by the Princess. He said that the Princess lived a lavish lifestyle, highlighting photos taken of her with President Trump at his Florida home and her appearance on the TV documentary Inside Monaco: Playground of the Rich as further evidence.
Advocate Olaf Blakeley, on behalf of the Princess, said that she did not know the location of many of her mother’s assets. He said: ‘It would be quite wrong to say she failed to purge her contempt of court if she did not provide documents that are not in her power or possession. It is my submission the vast majority of documents that were requested were provided by Princess Camilla and all those highlighted were provided.’ The Times reports that Commissioner Julian Clyde-Smith was sceptical that the Princess was revealing everything she knew. He said: ‘We have not received any information about the Croci Group [the family business] or on Madame Crociani’s non-voting shares in the group. The court believed [at the last hearing] that she knows where the Gauguin is. The way to purge the contempt is to tell us. And she has not done that.’
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Princess Camilla and Prince Carlo, Duke of Castro, 58, have two daughters, Maria Carolina, Duchess of Calabria and of Palermo, 17, and Maria Chiara, 16.
This is an edited version of an article that was first published on Tuesday 23 February
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