Displaying items by tag: new york supreme court

The estate of a Paris art dealer filed a suit against the Nahmad family in New York State Supreme Court on Tuesday over the restitution of a $25 million Nazi looted portrait by Amedeo Modigliani purportedly in the possession of the Nahmads, the New York Times reports.

The same court dismissed a previous attempt by the original owner's grandson, 71-year-old Philippe Maestracci, to secure the return of Modigliani's Seated Man With a Cane (1918) in 2012, after a judge ruled the France-based claimant lacked standing to pursue the case in the US.

The New York Supreme Court has dismissed a lawsuit brought by the heirs of sculptor Alexander Calder against the estate of the artist’s longtime dealer, Klaus Perls. Justice Shirley Werner Kornreich said that “All these allegations are so patently inadequate that the court can only conclude that they were brought solely for the purpose of harassment or embarrassment.”

The original lawsuit was filed in 2010 and stated that for over three decades, Perls had carried out an elaborate scheme to collect millions of dollars from 15 unauthorized sales of works by Calder. The majority of the sales took place between 1976 and 1988, meaning that the statute of limitations for litigation had long expired, further weakening the heirs’ case. In addition, the Alexander Calder Foundation, which was established by the artist’s heirs in 1987, had been notified of seven of the sales.

Calder’s descendants were asking for $20 million to settle the case.  

The New York Court of Appeals reversed a decision that could have forced auction houses to reveal the identities of consignors. The original ruling was made by the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court in 2012 and declared that state law required that buyers be allowed to know the names of sellers in post-auction paperwork in order for the sale to be considered official.  

The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed against New York auctioneer William J. Jenack. After Jenack sold a Russian antique in 2008, the buyer refused to pay, claiming that the post-sale documentation had not identified the seller. The ruling on Tuesday, December 17, stated that Jenack had provided sufficient information to the buyer for the sale to be considered binding.