A New York Supreme Court judge has ruled that the estate of Jewish art dealer Oscar Stettiner is the rightful owner of Amedeo Modigliani’s 1918 painting "Seated Man With a Cane." The decision concludes an 11-year legal battle led by Stettiner’s grandson, Philippe Maestracci, against billionaire art dealer David Nahmad. The court found that the painting was unlawfully seized by the Nazis after Stettiner fled Paris in 1939 and that subsequent sales, including the 1996 purchase by Nahmad at Christie’s, did not extinguish the original owner's rights.
This landmark ruling is significant as it represents one of the first major successes under the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery (HEAR) Act, which expanded the statute of limitations for Nazi-looted art claims. The case gained international notoriety following the Panama Papers leak, which exposed the Nahmad family's ownership through an offshore shell company after they had initially denied possessing the work. Valued at $25 million, the restitution underscores the increasing legal pressure on private collectors and dealers to address provenance issues related to World War II-era seizures.