[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/modig.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tJust weeks after ordering billionaire art dealer David Nahmad to return a Nazi-looted Amedeo Modigliani painting, a New York judge has ruled that the painting\u2019s rightful heirs are also entitled to prejudgment interest, a decision that could add millions in compensation to the case.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn a decision issued Tuesday, Justice Joel M. Cohen said New York law requires prejudgment interest in cases like this, meaning the heirs are entitled to compensation for the years they were deprived of\u00a0Seated Man with a Cane<\/em>. Exactly how much they\u2019ll receive is still up in the air. The court has scheduled an evidentiary hearing for September to determine the painting\u2019s value, which will largely dictate the size of the award.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe latest ruling comes four months after Cohen found that the Modigliani belonged to the estate of Jewish art dealer Oscar Stettiner, who left it behind while fleeing Paris ahead of the Nazi occupation. In June, the judge gave Nahmad 30 days to return the painting.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tWhat\u2019s striking about Tuesday\u2019s decision is that Cohen more or less admits he doesn\u2019t love the outcome. He notes there is no evidence Nahmad knew the painting had been looted when it was bought at auction in 1996, and that the heirs will get back a painting that\u2019s likely worth far more today than when the lawsuit began. If the law gave him the option, Cohen wrote, he \u201cmight well\u201d reduce the interest award or even eliminate it altogether. But, he added, New York law and binding precedent leave him no room to do that.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tTuesday\u2019s decision isn\u2019t about who owns the painting anymore. That fight has already been decided. This one is about what the years-long legal battle ultimately costs.<\/p>\n \n\tThat question is still unresolved. The heirs have submitted appraisals valuing the painting at roughly $20 million when the lawsuit was filed in 2014. Nahmad\u2019s side says it was worth just $6.5 million. The judge will sort that out at an evidentiary hearing in September before calculating the final interest award.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tNahmad\u2019s attorneys, meanwhile, are already looking toward an appeal.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThis case raises serious appellate issues,\u201d attorney Luke Nikas said in a statement to\u00a0ARTnews<\/em>. He argued that the court imposed liability without a trial even though the defense submitted documentary evidence and sworn eyewitness testimony that, in its view, shows\u00a0Seated Man with a Cane<\/em>\u00a0is not the same painting once owned by Stettiner.<\/p>\n \n\tAccording to Nikas, the court declined to consider those materials before ruling against the Nahmads. \u201cThe Nahmads acted in good faith, and they are entitled to their day in court,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/market\/judge-awards-interest-nahmad-modigliani-restitution-case-1234793997\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/modig.jpg?w=1024″] Just weeks after ordering billionaire art dealer David Nahmad to return a Nazi-looted Amedeo Modigliani painting, a New York judge has ruled that the painting\u2019s rightful heirs are also entitled to prejudgment interest, a decision that could add millions in compensation to the case. In a decision issued Tuesday, Justice Joel M. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2069991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2069991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2069991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2069991\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2069991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2069991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2069991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}