La famille Nahmad sommée de restituer à un agriculteur français un Modigliani spolié par les nazis, estimé à 21,5 millions d’euros
The New York State Supreme Court has ordered the restitution of Amedeo Modigliani’s 1918 painting, 'Seated Man (with a Cane)', to Philippe Maestracci, the grandson of Jewish art dealer Oscar Stettiner. The artwork, valued at approximately €21.5 million, was looted from Stettiner’s Paris gallery by the Nazis in 1944. Despite a 1946 court ruling in Stettiner's favor, the painting remained hidden for decades before being acquired in 1996 by the billionaire Nahmad family through an offshore entity.
This landmark ruling concludes a 17-year legal battle that was significantly influenced by the 2016 Panama Papers leak. The leaked documents proved that the Panama-based International Art Center, which officially owned the painting, was a shell company controlled exclusively by the Nahmads. The case underscores the increasing difficulty for collectors to hide behind offshore structures in provenance disputes and highlights the critical role of investigative journalism in resolving historical art thefts.