The French internal revenue service is demanding a gigantic €250 million ($330 million) in back taxes from Guy Wildenstein, the scion of the powerful French art-dealing clan, who has been accused of undervaluing the estate of his father, Daniel Wildenstein. This sum is part of a staggering total of €600 million ($789 million) that Daniel Wildenstein's heirs as a group owe in back taxes. The Wildensteins plan to appeal the decision.

According to French news magazine Le Point, which broke the story in yesterday's print edition, the state's investigation determined that part of Guy Wildenstein's inheritance was stashed away in trusts in Jersey, the Bahamas, and the Virgin Islands. Taxes seem to have been underpaid both after Daniel Wildenstein's death and during his lifetime. Daniel died in 2001, and his estate has been estimated at €4 billion ($5.3 billion). But in 1998 he declared a monthly income of 870 francs (roughly $175).

Accusations of tax evasion were first levied by Guy Wildenstein's stepmother, Sylvia Roth, in 2009. Roth sued Wildenstein for fraud, claiming that he cheated her out of her fair share of his father's estate — while simultaneously cheating the French tax authorities — by hiding huge amounts wealth in offshore trusts. She died in November 2010, but her lawyer is still pursuing the case. Guy Wildenstein was a generous donor to Nicolas Sarkozy's election campaign, and there were concerns that the French president's influence would stall the budget ministry's investigation, but now that process is complete.

Meanwhile, in addition to his late stepmother's lawsuit, Wildenstein faces two other legal challenges. In July 2011, he was accused of possession of stolen goods and breach of trust after 30 artworks described as "missing or stolen" were discovered during a police search of the Wildenstein Institute. In December 2011, his brother Alec's widow, Liouba Stoupakova, also sued Guy for breach of trust, claiming that he had dissuaded her from withdrawing funds from offshore trusts so that he could lend her money and be reimbursed from the same trusts, thus evading taxation. 

The Wildenstein family's assets are vast, including numerous 19th-century paintings, a private island in the Virgin Islands, and a Kenyan ranch where "Out of Africa" was filmed.