November 25, 2015, by Doreen Carvajal – Excerpt
“In a fresh legal complaint filed on Tuesday, the estate of a Paris art dealer is seeking the return of a precious Modigliani portrait said to have been seized by the Nazis and now, the court papers contend, in the possession of the Nahmad family, a dynasty of art dealers that wields enormous power in the international art market.”
“The suit contends the Nahmad family enterprise, including the artworks in the freeport, are controlled by David Nahmad, the family patriarch, who lives in New York and Monaco. The family galleries and International Art Center regularly mingled activities, the court papers say, and Nahmad Gallery employees offered to take clients to Geneva to sell art that was purportedly owned and stored by the corporation.”
“The portrait and the historical information was tracked down by James Palmer, whose company, Mondex, specializes in the recovery of looted art for heirs. Mr. Palmer said that Mr. Stettiner had owned only one Modigliani, and that the portrait was tied to Mr. Stettiner through letters the dealer wrote when he lent it for display at the 1930 Venice Biennale, which listed it in its catalog.”
This is an excerpt from this New York Times article. Full article through this link: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/25/arts/design/estate-sues-nahmad-gallery-network-for-modigliani-portrait.html?searchResultPosition=36&login=email&auth=login-email
