Alexander Calder Sculpture Sparks Bruising Art-World Fight
A prominent New York art gallerist is battling with a famed art detective and the granddaughter of a French architect over who is the true owner of a $8.7 million Alexander Calder sculpture—a dispute that has spawned allegations of theft, stalking, and dueling lawsuits.
The gallerist, Edward Nahem, claims in a lawsuit filed this week that he purchased the Calder—a 1950 “Mobile de Bretagne”—from French dealer and “art detective” Elisabeth Royer Grimblat in 2017. Nahem is the owner of an eponymous art gallery on Madison Avenue, and has been hailed as a “fixture of the New York gallery scene” known for showing major 20th century artists like Joan Miró, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Pablo Picasso. Royer Grimblat, meanwhile, is a well-known Parisian art dealer who made a name for herself hunting down priceless artworks stolen by the Nazis in the Holocaust. Her personal collection also includes work by Picasso, Alberto Giacometti and John Constable, according to Departures.
Nahem’s lawsuit contends that Royer Grimblat introduced herself in 2017 as an agent for the owner of the Calder piece, whose family was close friends with the artist. But shortly after Nahem bought it, he alleges, the owner’s daughter claimed her mother never agreed to sell the piece and that her sisters had conspired with Royer Grimblat to steal it. The lawsuit alleges the daughter—Eleonore Groën Nitzschke, who now uses the name Lea Lee—emailed him and approached him at art fairs claiming the work was sold illegally and demanding to know the name of the seller. He says that after Royer Grimblat assured him that Lee was “lying and unstable,” he refused to return the art.