Justice orders the Return of a Modigliani stolen by the Nazis
Art dealer David Nahmad, who spent eleven years attempting to prove in court that he was the rightful owner of Amadeo Modigliani's painting Seated Man with a Cane, has lost his case.
New York judge Joel M. Cohen on April 3 ruled that the canvas belonged to the estate of Jewish antiques dealer Oscar Stettiner, from whose Paris shop it was taken as he fled the Nazi invasion of France during World War II.
The painting was purchased at auction from Christie's by International Art Center, a company controlled by Nahmad, in 1996 and placed in storage in Switzerland. In 2011, Philippe Maestracci, a farmer living in France and a grandson of Stettiner, began legal action to try to recover it. Aided by the company Mondex, which specializes in recovering looted art, Maestracci in 2015 filed a lawsuit in New York court seeking to regain the canvas. Depicting a behatted chocolate seller, the work has been valued at $30 million.
Nahmad had argued that the painting he had bought was not the same one Stettiner had owned. Cohen, as first reported by the New York Times, wrote that Stettiner “owned or at a minimum had a superior right of possession of the painting prior to its unlawful seizure” and “never voluntarily relinquished it.” He cited a 1946 French court ruling ordering that the painting be returned to the antiques dealer, which it never was.
“The evidence shows a straightforward and persuasive chain of ownership/right of possession flowing directly from Mr. Stettiner to Nazi seizure to a forced sale,” wrote Cohen.
Cohen averred that Nahmad had acted in good faith when purchasing the work, saying that “by design or inadvertence,” Christie’s had provided bad information regarding the painting’s provenance at the time of sale.
“Our client, Mr. Maestracci, is overwhelmed with joy and the satisfaction that after so many years the quest of his grandfather has finally been fulfilled,” Mondex founder James Palmer told the New York Times.
“We now look forward to Mr. Nahmad to abide by his promise to return the painting upon receiving the order of the court, which today he has now received.”
Main Image: Amedeo Modigliani, Seated Man with Cane, 1918. Photo: Public domain.