Troubled Manhattan art dealer Helly Nahmad, who was thrown in prison in April for running an illegal gambling ring, is being sued for allegedly hiding a $20 million painting stolen by the Nazis.
Frenchman Phillippe Maestracci, whose grandfather Oscar Stettiner was a Jewish art dealer when he fled Paris before Hitler’s army invaded in 1939, is suing Nahmad and his billionaire art dealer dad David Nahmad in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Maestracci says the Nahmads used a murky corporation called International Art Center to duck a federal lawsuit over Amedeo Modigliani’s 1918 piece “Seated Man with a Cane.”
He is now suing to force the Nahmads to disclose who runs IAC, where it’s located and who is in possession of the painting.
The gallery owners’ attorney, Richard Golub, said, “This painting was bought at a Christie’s London auction in 1996 by IAC, and the location of the painting is a matter of public record.” Golub also noted that Maestracci withdrew his prior federal lawsuit against the Nahmads.