The exact sequence of events that led the lawyers to ask to be excused remains classified, but the basic issue appears to have been that they felt that attorney-client secrecy had been compromised, and that the rules at Guantánamo presented them with insuperable ethical conflicts, keeping them, for example, from discussing the case with their client.
But to dealers and their clients, secrecy is a crucial element of the art market's mystique and practice.
Many clients view secrecy as an asset.
The members of the tax haven club share certain guarantees: they ensure banking clients' total secrecy, they release no information to other countries' tax authorities, and they offer a low- or zero-level tax rate for people who are non-domiciled.
AXA Art, another insurer, has started asking clients to tell it when they are moving costly works into storage so that it can get a better idea of how exposed it is, says the firm's boss, Ulrich Guntram.It is no help that freeports have habitually been loth to divulge even basic security information, for fear that their clients (obsessed with secrecy as they are) would object.
But those specialties and inventions pale in comparison to Switzerland's reputation for banking secrecy and client confidentiality.
At stake are the traditional Swiss foundations of client confidentiality and bank secrecy that many Swiss citizens believed to be undermined by the closely watched deal.
The two companies will now have to retain new auditors, and they may ask KPMG to bear those costs because the firm breached its fiduciary obligation to maintain the secrecy of client information.
Other countries in Europe want to reach a middle ground with the Swiss in criminal cases, but that would violate the secrecy Swiss clients treasure.
But it also assures prospective clients that "Swiss bank secrecy is not lifted for tax evasion, even upon the request of a foreign government".
