Davis Woolfe is assisting an art collector in a matter concerning the sale of a high-profile painting by one of the greatest and most-influential artists of the 20th century. The painting was sold by our client to a buyer who had obtained third party funding from a specialist funder in order to acquire the painting. The lender sought to create a lien over the painting as security for the loan, despite title not passing to the buyer until all payments had been made to the seller (our client). Subsequently, the buyer defaulted on the payments to the seller. Despite this, the funder asserted security over the asset which is disputed by the seller. To add further complexity, the painting is currently being stored in the funder’s vault by a specialist art storage company.