The revelations of “Panama Papers” will they shake the art market? The case of Modigliani painting “Seated man” painted in 1918, revealed today by the site “World”, uncovers practices often mentioned but it is often difficult to prove. In the article by Nathaniel Herzberg, one learns that a “farmer in Dordogne, Philippe Maestracci, 71, accuses the rich Nahmad family to hold this table, illegally sold, according to him, in 1944 by the provisional administrator the gallery of his grandfather. Conversely, clan Nahmad denies the reality of the theft and says it does not hold the canvas. ”
Officially, this canvas would be the property of the Panamanian company IAC, including David Nahmad is the sole shareholder. A quality that, according to lawyers of the Nahmad family does not make him work owner. This is where the whole argument that wealthy clan (his fortune is estimated at more than $ 3 billion) was used to block the procedure initiated five years ago in the Civil Court of New York.
Wildenstein Affairs Beltracchi …
the Nahmad family has deep pockets. Owner of galleries in New York and London, it is omnipresent on public sales markets and its collections are rich, among others, hundreds of works by Picasso which would be stored in the free port of Geneva. The Nahmad and Mughrabi (another family as it dominates the art market) have been nicknamed “the mega-market that nobody knows.”
That the name of Nahmad appear in the case of “Panama papers” is not a surprise, as the art market is accustomed to frequent tax havens. The survey conducted in 2012 by two German journalists, Stefan Koldehoff and Tim Tobias ( “The Beltracchi case”, ed. Jacqueline Chambon) and revealed that many of the paintings by the forger Wolfgang Beltracchi had been acquired, some for sums up to $ 7 million, of companies domiciled in tax havens
Bonnie & amp. Clyde brush: the most incredible scam art world
In France, we remember the fight that Sylvia Wildenstein (deceased in 2010) was conducted, considering himself robbed by the family of her husband deceased. The documents collected by his lawyer, Claude Dumont-Beghi, had revealed in his own words, “the use of trusts [shell companies, Ed] for the purpose of concealment in the field art”. In 2009 the lawyer had in fact played a real role of whistleblower in the proof of Elise Lucet TV show ( “Exhibits”) to which it had worked and already highlighted the galaxy of free ports and offshore companies housed including the Bahamas.
Small cascade arrangements
the case of the table Modigliani has all the hidden facets of the art market
– theft of Jewish property during the Occupation: owner of the table was a Jewish merchant whose Paris gallery was aryanised during the Occupation;
– works on recycling the private market or through public auctions where their source is made up, transfer to free ports where, whatever people say, the secret and the shenanigans continue to reign;
– securities property transferred to trusts housed in the Cayman islands or elsewhere.
in 2015, the product of global auctions totaled $ 16 billion. What should be added (but no one knows the exact amount) that private sales. According to an expert in the art market:
“In that universe, everyone is held by the goatee The stakes are colossal already diving the Chinese art market had.. shook the markets last year “
one concern that was only temporary. after a 10% drop in 2015, the sales revenue increased again by 7% during the first two months of 2016 …
Bernard Géniès
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