David Nahmad's lawyers are asking a New York court to reconsider its April 3 decision in the restitution case over Amedeo Modigliani's *Seated Man with a Cane* (1918), which awarded the painting to the estate of dealer Oscar Stettiner. They cite new eyewitness testimony from Frédéric Allain, who recalls a different Modigliani—smaller, darker, and without a seated man or cane—hidden by the Van der Klip family in Paris during World War II, suggesting the wrong painting may have been the focus of the case. The filing also references a 1946 report describing the missing work as a self-portrait and a new catalogue raisonné by Marc Restellini that finds no link between the painting and Stettiner. Mondex, representing Stettiner's heirs, rejects the claims, asserting that *Seated Man with a Cane* bears Stettiner's name and was in the family's possession from 1944 to 1996.
This matters because the case involves a painting valued at over $25 million and touches on the complexities of Holocaust-era art restitution, where provenance disputes often hinge on fragmentary records and fading memories. If the court reopens the case, it could set a precedent for how new witness testimony is weighed in restitution claims, potentially affecting other pending cases. The outcome also impacts the Nahmad family, prominent art dealers, and the restitution firm Mondex, highlighting the ongoing tension between legal ownership and historical justice in the art world.