The gaps in the provenance of the portrait “Seated Man” by Modigliani are gradually being closed. As the Süddeutsche Zeitung and other media outlets have discovered in the context of the Panama Papers, the painting, which belonged to the Parisian gallery owner Oscar Stettiner, was confiscated and resold under the Nazi occupation. It did not resurface until 1996, when it was auctioned off at Christie’s in London. It then reappeared in 2008 at Sotheby’s in New York, where it failed to find a buyer.
Canadian art detective James Palmer of Mondex Corporation was able to identify Stettiner’s rightful heirs in the south of France – a grandson of the gallery owner – as well as the presumed current possessor of the painting: the Nahmad clan of art dealers. A lawsuit for return of the painting was filed against the Nahmads in New York. The Nahmads countered that the painting does not belong to them, but was acquired in 1996 by the International Art Center – a company that, as revealed by the Panama Papers, was founded in 1995 by the law firm Mossack Fonesca on behalf of a Nahmad family member.
This is an excerpt from this Süddeutsche Zeitung article. Full article through this link:
https://www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/kunst-in-den-panama-papers-wem-gehoert-dieser-modigliani-1.3261492
