State-owned company Parvalorem has been looking closely at various options for the Miró collection of paintings - but only as a plan B to swing into action if the June auction by Christie’s in London is unsuccessful.
If the 85 pieces are not sold, Parvalorem may then offer the remaining lots to interested parties. It already has been offered €50 million by a Portuguese businessman, well over the auction estimate of €32 million but still well below the BPN asset valuation of over €80 million.
The president of Parvalorem, Francisco Nogueira Leite, said that he was just being cautious and was planning for a worst case scenario.
Parvalorem was established in 2010 by the government to manage the assets and recover money owed to the defunct bank BPN which was so badly run it has to be nationalised in 2008 – with money borrowed by from the Troika.
Found among the bank’s assets was the Miró collection which the bank had ended up with after a loan went bad.
