Was Brant a BIOC?

Kerstin Lindholm and her husband, Magnus, were art collectors. For over 30 years, an art dealer named Anders Malmberg sold paintings for the couple and bought others for them, including an Andy Warhol picture called Red Elvis. In 1989, Malmberg arranged for Kerstin Lindholm to loan Red Elvis to the Museum of Modern Art in New York, as part of a major exhibition on Warhol. The exhibit also included paintings owned by Peter Brant. Brant saw Red Elvis at the show, was interested in the painting, and learned that Kerstin was the owner, represented by Malmberg.
A decade later, another dealer, Stellan Holm, told Brant that Malmberg had purchased Red Elvis and might sell it. In fact, the Lindholms still owned the picture. Brant orally agreed to pay Malmberg $2.9 million for Red Elvis. With nothing put in writing, he made a $900,000 deposit. Then Brant learned that the Lindholms were involved in a bitter divorce. Concerned that Magnus Lindholm might make claims to the picture, he hired a lawyer to investigate. The lawyer reported finding no liens or art-loss claims but told Brant that this did not prove that Malmberg owned the painting.
Brant asked Malmberg for documents proving that Kerstin had sold him the picture, but Malmberg refused, pointing out that confidentiality was the norm in the art world. Eventually, after Malmberg arranged loans of Red Elvis to the Guggenheim Museum and yet another exhibition, in Denmark, Brant paid the remaining $2 million and received the picture. Meanwhile Kirsten, assuming she owned Red Elvis, arranged to sell to a Japanese buyer for $4.6 million, only to learn that Brant now claimed to own it. Kerstin sued. The trial court ruled that Brant was a BIOC, entitled to keep the painting. Kerstin appealed, and the case reached Connecticut’s highest court.