The judicial authorities are investigating what could turn out to be one of the biggest cases yet seen in France involving the hiding of artworks from a deceased person's estate to reduce inheritance tax. The case, which follows the death more than a decade ago of the great French film-maker Claude Berri, shows glaring weaknesses in the French system when it comes to scrutinising this area of taxation. Now a Member of Parliament is calling for a national register to be set up to record who owns works of art in the country – a system similar to what currently exists with car ownership. Fabrice Arfi reports.
For the past four years two police units have been probing what could turn out to be one of the biggest cases yet seen in France involving the concealment or non-declaration of artworks in order to avoid inheritance tax.
