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 beenas a “fixture of the New York gallery scene” known for showing major 20th century artists like Joan Miró, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Pablo Picasso.
Around the time of her lawsuit, Nahem claims, Lee “began to stalk Mr. Nahem at art fairs and art auctions where he was surrounded by his staff, his spouse, his colleagues and, most damagingly, the Gallery’s clients.” In one instance, he alleged, Lee entered the gallery’s booth at a public art fair in Manhattan—in the presence of his clients—and loudly declared Nahem a thief. He claims Lee refused to leave or stop her pronouncements until he called in security guards.
According to her website, Lee is a French-American photographer and art adviser who is now focusing on becoming a collector and artist. On her website, she claimed her grandfather—the architect Oscar Nitzschké—was “close friends with many notable art world luminaries” including Willem de Kooning, Duke Ellington, and Peggy Guggenheim. She says the family was close with Calder, often visiting him for holidays, and cites him as a personal inspiration.
A judge dismissed Lee’s lawsuit in June, finding that the evidence clearly showed the sale was finalized before her mother’s death and that partial payment was wired to Royer Grimblat for the sale. But Lee has filed an appeal and continues to claim the work was stolen, which Nahem says is making a resale difficult.
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