David Nahmad

{{Infobox person

| name = David Nahmad

| image =

| caption =

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1947}}

| birth_place = Beirut, Lebanon{{Cite web|url=https://www.hellomonaco.com/news/interviews/david-nahmad-about-art-moscow-and-the-principality-of-monaco/|title=David Nahmad, about art, Moscow and the Principality of Monaco|website=www.hellomonaco.com|date=October 11, 2017}}

| death_date =

| death_place =

| citizenship =

| education =

| occupation = Retired art dealer

| known for =

| boards =

| spouse = Colette Soued

| parents = Hillel Nahmad
Mathilde Safra

| children = 3, including Joseph, Helly Nahmad

| relations = Giuseppe "Joseph" Nahmad (brother)
Ezra Nahmad (brother)

| website =

}}

David Nahmad (born 1947) is a Lebanese billionaire and former fine art dealer.[https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2007/1224/080.html] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100414153154/http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2007/1224/080.html|date=April 14, 2010}} He is a descendant of a Syrian Jewish art family residing in Monaco.{{Cite web|url=https://www.hellomonaco.com/news/interviews-2/david-nahmad-about-art-moscow-and-the-principality-of-monaco/|title=David Nahmad, about art, Moscow and the Principality of Monaco.|last=|first=|date=11 October 2017|website=HelloMonaco|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}

Origin

The roots of the Nahmad family are in Aleppo, Syria, where Sephardic JewishPeter Aspden (December 21, 2012), [http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/49e1b958-4a0d-11e2-a7b1-00144feab49a.html#axzz2KiAmJnhj Art dealer who bought and sold with immaculate timing] Financial Times. banker Hillel Nahmad lived and ran a successful business until just after the Second World War.{{Cite web |last=centerforartlaw |date=2013-04-21 |title=Helly Nahmad, Heir of Controversial Art-Dealing Dynasty, Indicted in International Gambling and Money-Laundering Scheme - Center for Art Law |url=https://itsartlaw.org/2013/04/21/helly-nahmad-heir-of-controversial-art-dealing-dynasty-indicted-in-international-gambling-and-money-laundering-scheme/ |access-date=2025-01-19 |website=itsartlaw.org |language=en-US}}{{Cite book |last=Becker |first=Christoph |url=https://www.google.ch/books/edition/The_Nahmad_Collection/Vew8u6xkop4C?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=Hillel+Nahmad,+aleppo&dq=Hillel+Nahmad,+aleppo&printsec=frontcover |title=The Nahmad Collection |date=2011 |publisher=DuMont |isbn=978-3-8321-9408-6 |language=en}} Following anti-Jewish violence in Syria in 1947, Hillel Nahmad moved to Beirut, Lebanon and when the situation there became difficult, Hillel took his three sons, Joseph (Giuseppe), Ezra and David, to Milan in the early 1960s.{{Cite web |date=2017-04-05 |title=David Nahmad, crazy collector - L'Observateur de Monaco |url=https://lobservateurdemonaco.com/enquetes/david-nahmad-crazy-collector/ |access-date=2025-01-20 |website=lobservateurdemonaco.com |language=fr-FR}}

Art dealing

As teenagers in the 1960s, they began to deal in art. Ezra and David used free-time after school to trade on the Italian stock market. At a Juan Gris exhibition in Rome organised by cubist dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, Ezra and David bought two works – the only pieces sold. Kahnweiler befriended them, selling them works by Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, and Gris.Jackie Wullschlager (November 11, 2011), [http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/e9cbe436-0a15-11e1-85ca-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2KiAmJnhj Lunch with the FT: Helly Nahmad] Financial Times. With the emergence of the Red Brigades terror group in the 1970s, Milan was perceived as too dangerous, and the family moved again. Joseph and Ezra headed for Monaco, and David to New York City.

Helly Nahmad Gallery, located at the luxury Carlyle Hotel on Madison Avenue, is a company run by David’s son Hillel "Helly" Nahmad, who took over his father’s earlier Davlyn Gallery in 2000. In 2013 the Gallery was raided by the FBI in connection to a sweep of gambling and money laundering operations of the Russian Mafia.{{Cite web |title=Exhibitions - Helly Nahmad Gallery |url=https://www.hellynahmadgallery.com/exhibitions |access-date=2025-01-22 |website=www.hellynahmadgallery.com |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Behar |first=Richard |title=Billionaire Heir Helly Nahmad's Art Gallery Raided By Feds In Russian Mob Gambling Sweep |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardbehar/2013/04/16/billionaire-helly-nahmads-nyc-art-gallery-raided-by-feds-in-russian-mob-gambling-sweep/ |access-date=2025-01-22 |website=Forbes |language=en}}

Jeffrey Deitch, art dealer and former director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, once described the Nahmads as "like a major brokerage firm in the stock market", adding: "The market needs a force like this to function." Sarah Thornton discusses their significant influence on the auction market Seven Days in the Art World{{Cite book|title=Seven days in the art world|last=L.)|first=Thornton, Sarah (Sarah|date = 2 November 2009|isbn=9780393337129|location=New York|oclc=489232834}}.

According to the cartel presented at the Beyeler Fondation in Basel during The Young Picasso Periods Blue and Pink exhibition, the Nahmad collection now owns Young Girl with a Flower Basket (1905), bought in 2018 for 115 million dollars at the Rockefeller sale at Christie's.{{Cite web |date=2018-05-15 |title=Nahmads confirm Picasso’s $115m flower girl will go to Paris |url=https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2018/05/15/nahmads-confirm-picassos-dollar115m-flower-girl-will-go-to-paris |access-date=2025-02-17 |website=The Art Newspaper - International art news and events |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Article |first=Henri Neuendorf ShareShare This |date=2018-05-14 |title=Sold for $115 Million, David Rockefeller's Picasso Will Go on View at the Musee d'Orsay |url=https://news.artnet.com/market/rockefeller-picasso-musee-dorsay-loan-1285340 |access-date=2025-02-17 |website=Artnet News |language=en-US}}

''Seated Man with a Cane''

File:Modigliani Seated Man with a Cane.jpg, Seated Man with a Cane, 1918.]]

In 2011, Philippe Maestracci filed suit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, seeking title to the 1918 Amedeo Modigliani painting Seated Man with a Cane, valued at more than $25 million.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/25/arts/design/estate-sues-nahmad-gallery-network-for-modigliani-portrait.html|title=Estate Sues Nahmad Gallery Network for Modigliani Portrait|newspaper=The New York Times|date=24 November 2015 |accessdate=2016-01-09|last1=Carvajal |first1=Doreen }} Maestracci claimed that the painting had been looted from his grandfather, Oscar Stettiner, during World War II. In 2012, after Defendants moved to dismiss, Maestracci’s counsel withdrew that complaint. In 2015, the Limited Ancillary Administrator for the Estate of Oscar Stettiner filed suit in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York, seeking the same relief sought in federal court.

The amended complaint in that action was the subject of a recent motion to dismiss with Defendants’ counsel arguing, among other things, that Defendants purchased the painting in good faith at a public Christie’s auction in London, that Oscar Stettiner did not actually own the subject painting, and that provenance research about the painting is being provided by experts in the field. Plaintiff's counsel contends that this painting had been sold out of the possessions of Jewish art dealer Oscar Stettiner by an administrator appointed under the Nazi occupation of Paris.Katrin Langhans, Frederik Obermaier, Bastian Obermayer, Kia Vahland: "Panama Painting. Defendants lost their motion to dismiss this case and additional evidence has been presented by the Plaintiffs, which substantiates their claim. Interestingly, David Nahmad claims that Christie's agreed to reimburse him and yet he continues to defend his position, without substantial evidence. Über einen von den Nazis geraubten Modigliani, der vor seinem rechtmäßigen Eigentümer versteckt wird".

Süddeutsche Zeitung, April 9, 2016, p. 11-13, listing the whereabouts of the painting since 1930. In April, 2016, Swiss authorities seized the painting from the Geneva Freeport as part of an ongoing investigation.{{Cite web |last=Sher |first=Julian |date=April 12, 2016 |title=Modigliani masterpiece seized in wake of Panama Papers |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/modigliani-masterpiece-seized-panama-papers-1.3529856 |url-status=live |website=CBC}} Following a court decision in 2017, Maestracci was granted standing to continue with his 2014 lawsuit to reclaim the work.{{Cite web |title=Jewish Art Collector's Heir Has Standing to Sue for Nazi-Confiscated Painting |url=https://www.law.com/newyorklawjournal/2017/11/06/jewish-art-collectors-heir-has-standing-to-sue-for-nazi-confiscated-painting/?slreturn=20250122140605 |access-date=2025-01-22 |website=New York Law Journal |language=en}}

In the January 2020 edition of the Art Newspaper new evidence is referred to with respect to a 1950 document, which contains a photograph of the painting on one side and the words "stolen" and "Stettiner family" on the reverse. This new evidence is further proof that the Seated Man With a Cane is the very same painting as the one stolen from Oscar Stettiner.{{Cite web |date=2020-01-09 |title=New evidence cited in restitution claim for Panama Papers Modigliani |url=https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2020/01/09/new-evidence-cited-in-restitution-claim-for-panama-papers-modigliani |access-date=2025-01-22 |website=The Art Newspaper - International art news and events |language=en}}

Personal life

Nahmad is married to Colette Nahmad.{{Cite web|first= |last= |authorlink= |title=Denise Amon, September 29, 2013, Beloved wife of Dr. René Amon. |publisher=Chicago Tribune|date=October 1, 2013 |url=https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/chicagotribune/obituary.aspx?n=denise-amon&pid=167283495&fhid=25793 |quote= Dear sister of Jacqueline (the late Raymond) Harari, Nadia (Albert) Chowaiki, Evelyn (Enrico) Matalan, Ezra (Marie) Nahmad, David (Colette) Nahmad and the late Albert (Arlette) Nahmad and Joseph Nahmad}} They have three children, Helly Nahmad, Joe Nahmad, and Marielle Safra.{{cite news |last1=Vogel |first1=Carol |title=Cézanne and Modigliani Push Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern Art Sale to $230 Million |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/08/arts/design/cezanne-and-modigliani-help-propel-sothebys-sale-to-230-million.html |accessdate=17 February 2020 |work=New York Times |date=7 May 2013}} Marielle is married to Edmond M. Safra, son of the late Brazilian banker Moise Safra.{{cite news |last1=Clarke |first1=Katherine |title=Safra banking scion wants $65K a month for Fifth Avenue pad |url=https://therealdeal.com/2016/07/22/safra-banking-scion-wants-65k-a-month-for-fifth-avenue-pad/ |accessdate=17 February 2020 |work=The Real Deal |date=22 July 2016}}{{cite news |last1=Onifade |first1=Fola |title=Wealthy Brazilian banking family endows Wharton professorship |url=https://www.thedp.com/article/2014/06/wharton-new-profesorship-announced-6b3c |accessdate=17 February 2020 |work=The Daily Pennsylvanian |date=18 June 2014}}

He is the 1996 Backgammon World Champion{{cite web|url=http://www.bkgm.com/features/HallOfFame/ |title=Backgammon Hall of Fame |publisher=Bkgm.com |date= |accessdate=2013-09-15}} and is known for betting large amounts of money on the game.