11-Year Restitution Dispute Over Prized Modigliani Ends With Loss for Nahmad Family
ARTnews.com reports that an 11-year restitution dispute over Amedeo Modigliani’s Seated Man With a Cane (1918) ended with a New York ruling against billionaire dealer David Nahmad and his family. Judge Joel M. Cohen held that the painting belongs to the estate of Oscar Stettiner, a Jewish art dealer who left Paris under duress before the Nazi occupation, finding the work was unlawfully seized and never voluntarily relinquished. The claim was pursued by Stettiner’s grandson Philippe Maestracci, with Mondex, and the painting—valued at more than $25 million—has been held since 1996 by International Art Center, a Nahmad-linked holding company that bought it at a London auction; the court also criticized the Christie’s 1996 provenance narrative as flawed and misleading.
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This story was covered in Miniatures, Restitution, and Faith’s Surreal Power