Art Market & Nahmad Family

The Art of the Deal - Forbes
1 of 6
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2007/1224/080.html
New Posts
+13 posts this hour
Most Popular
Lists
Video
Highest-Paid Athletes
America's Top Colleges
Country Cash Kings
2 FREE issues of Forbes
Log in | Sign up | Connect
| Help
Susan Adams, Forbes Staff

I cover careers, jobs and every aspect of leadership.
Follow (3,193)
Most Read on Forbes

12/07/2007 @ 7:20PM
NEWS
People
Places
Companies
4 Ways To Kill Vampires And Energize

Your Growth +93,381 views
How the Nahmad family made billions trading art, and why so many people in
the art world cant stand them.
On the evening of Nov. 6, in the packed Rockefeller Center salesroom of

Christies auction house, four buyers were vying for a 1955 Picasso oil of
Jacqueline, the artists second wife. As the bidding quickly rose above $20
million, five members of a family of international art dealers named Nahmad
watched from their seats in the middle of the expensively attired crowd. David
Nahmad, 60, together with his two older brothers, had purchased the
painting in May 1995 at Sothebys for $2.6 million. The winning bid: $30.8
million, including the auction houses 12% commission. The family made a
tenfold gain over a 12-year holding period. It was a profitable night, indeed,
for the Nahmads. Earlier a Modigliani they had bought privately in London
five months before for $18 million had also sold for $30.8 million.
Apple Loop: The iPhone 6 Will Launch

On September 9, Go On Sale During
September, And Here Are Some
Expected Features +63,025 views
Top 100 Inspirational Quotes
+40,550 views
Tony Stewart Releases Statement And

Skips Watkins Glen Following Fatal
Accident +39,788 views
What It's Like Raising Money As A
Woman In Silicon Valley +37,800 views
+ show more
Outside the art world the Nahmads are scarcely known. Within it they are
admired and feared, and viewed variously as powerful, greedy and sharpelbowed. Yet, over 45 years theyve become influential megadealers of modern
and impressionist works by a stable of well-known names, from Monet and
Matisse to Renoir and Rothko. Christopher Burge, honorary chairman of
Christies New York, says: The Nahmads have sold more works of art than
anybody alive. If you exclude auctioneers, that statement is probably true.
In his day job David Nahmad is a risk-taker, trading millions of dollars in
currencies and commodities, as well as betting hundreds of thousands on
backgammon in Monte Carlohe holds the 1996 world title. But when it
comes to art, hes a Vanguard mutual fund. I like to buy value, says
Nahmad. He eschews contemporary showmen like Jeff Koons and Richard
Prince, whose work he dismisses as overvalued luxury products. He prefers
artists who make art history, focusing on pieces created at crucial
momentsfor instance a Monet from 1873, a turning point for impressionism,
or a Mir from 1924, an important date for surrealism.
Monet and Picasso are like Microsoft and Coca-Cola , he says. We know the
return is less big than on contemporary painting, but at least its more
secure.
The other piece of his strategy: Buy and hold. Most dealers keep their stock of
artwork lean, unable to afford to hold more than a few dozen paintings at a
time before they sell them. By contrast the Nahmads, sons and grandsons of a
prosperous banker from Aleppo, Syria, sit on a literal warehouse of art. Their
treasures take up 15,000 square feet of a duty-free building next to the airport
in Geneva. Whats inside? Its a secret, says David Nahmad. But three
sources in a position to know say the warehouse contains between 4,500 and
5,000 works of art, worth somewhere between $3 billion and $4 billion. The
Nahmads holdings include 300 Picassos, worth some $900 million. If that
8/11/2014 11:33 AM
2 of 6
New Posts
+13 posts this hour
Most Popular
Lists
Video
Country Cash Kings
In this business, ownership of the work is key, explains a New York dealer.
If youre just brokering the work, you can only mark it up a certain amount.
The Nahmads set their own prices, and they decide when the time is right to
sell.
The only reason we sell is to fuel our ability to buy, says Davids son Helly,
29, who runs a gallery in the posh Carlyle Hotel on Madison Avenue. (Hellys
cousin, also named Helly Nahmad after their grandfather Hillel in the
Sephardic Jewish tradition, runs a gallery in London.) And while there is a
cost to holding that inventory, the familys currency business helps support
their art strategy. The Nahmads wont reveal the size of their currency
portfolio, but a source close to the family pegs its value at $1 billion.
The Nahmad art inventory is so sweeping that almost everyone who deals in
impressionist and modern work has crossed the familys path at some point.
Some say the experience has been less than genteel. The main gripes: The
Nahmads change the terms of deals at the last minute and are slow to pay.
One dealer who has done a number of transactions with the family recounts a
time when Davids London nephew changed the price of a painting after the
two had agreed on a number. They dont stick to their word, and they dont
stick to their deals, he says.
Its extraordinarily difficult to extract money from them, says another
prominent dealer, who, like others, wont allow his name to be used for fear of
getting on the Nahmads bad side.
Nonsense, says David: Once we strike a deal, we honor a deal. Says nephew
Helly, about changing the agreed-upon price: Ive never done that in my life.
The Nahmads style is also messier, and louder, than more sedate types in the
art world would prefer. They have screaming fights in the gallery, says a
source who has been close to the family for a long time. In the auction room,
where they come out in force, bringing along wives and children who
sometimes disrupt proceedings, the Nahmads argue with each other even
while they are bidding.
Their size gives them leverage to negotiate special terms. For example, the
standard payment period for a work bought at auction runs 30 days. But on
occasion the Nahmads would lay out, say, 10% of what they owed. For the
balance, they would pledge to consign paintings for the next sale six months
later, promising the auction house it could draw the money owed when those
paintings sold. The Nahmads have sometimes carried a debt of as much as
$20 million at a single house.
Every so often a new financial guy would come in and say, Whats with these
people? Why arent they paying? recalls a former employee of an auction
house. But most of the cards were in their hands. Davids son Helly insists
those special arrangements are in the past. Weve got a tremendous amount
of cash, he insists. Weve sold more than weve purchased.
Unlike most other dealers, the Nahmads buy and sell much of their inventory
through auction houses. So auction house staffers do the work of verifying
authenticity. And if a buyer needs hand-holding and consultations with
decorators, spouses and art advisers, it will be another dealer who will do the
work.
The Nahmads also use auctions to support the price of work they own. In
London in October, for instance, they spent $3 million at Sothebys and
8/11/2014 11:33 AM
3 of 6
New Posts
+13 posts this hour
Most Popular
Lists
Video
Country Cash Kings
Fontanas, driving prices up. Its called defending your inventory, explains
Davids son Helly. We have 100 Fontanas in Switzerland, so if you pay a lot
of money for one at auction, in theory, it makes the other 100 worth more
money.
In the end the auction houses might need the Nahmads more than the
Nahmads need them. During deep art slumps in the early 1970s and early
1990s the Nahmads acquired art in bulk. In a Kandinsky auction at Sotheby
Parke Bernet in 1971 the Nahmads bought half of the paintings. Observes New
York dealer Jeffrey Deitch: They are like a major brokerage firm in the stock
market; the market needs a force like this to function.
Its this kind of talk, treating art as if it were an oil future, that makes purists
in the art world cringe. Dealers like Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler in Paris used
his livelihood to champion the early cubists and to showcase Picasso. The
Nahmads (who say they bought more than 200 Picassos from Kahnweilers
gallery) operate as secondary-market merchants rather than supporters of the
arts. There are dealers who present artwork as great human creations, on
galleries with red velvet walls, notes one prominent New York dealer. The
Nahmads sell their art from a concrete room in Geneva.
The instigator of the familys art passion is Giuseppe Nahmad, Davids
75-year-old brother. In the 1950s and 1960s Giuseppe, known as Joe, was
living a lavish lifestyle of Ferraris, Rolls-Royces and glamorous companions,
including Rita Hayworth, according to David. (In 1948 the family left Syria for
Beirut where they already had a home; they moved to Milan in 1960.) Friends
nicknamed Joe Farouk, after the extravagant Egyptian king. Joe decorated
his apartments in Rome, Milan, Portofino and London with art hed
purchased, including works by Magritte, Lger and Dal. Eccentric and
acquisitive, Joe is a hoarder, says his 31-year-old London nephew Helly: If
Uncle Joe bought a suitcase, he didnt buy just one suitcase; he bought 20.
Subscribe to Forbes and Save. Click Here.
Joe paid for his pleasures with his financial trades, but in 1963 his bets turned
south and he found himself short of cash. So he had his younger brothers Ezra
and David, then teenagers, hawk some of his paintings. (In a second
conversation David changes this story, insisting the motivation to sell was
demand by dealers hot for Joes artwork.) In any case, Milan was host to a
burgeoning art scene, and the brothers found plenty of buyers.
Fluent in French from their youth in Lebanon (the family still speak French
among themselves), David and Ezra started traveling to Paris where the art
market was quieter, picking up Picassos, Chagalls and Mirs on the cheap
and then returning to sell them for 50% and 100% gains in Milan. David says
he financed his buyers, allowing them to pay, say, $5,000 a month for a
$60,000 painting. David would take out a bank loan against the IOU and use
the cash to buy more artLike when you sell automobiles, he says.
Gregarious, engaging and comfortable in seven languages, David cultivated
relationships with the likes of dealer Kahnweiler and billionaire art collector
Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, who bought works by Picasso,
Kandinsky and Italian futurist Giacomo Balla. Ezra, 18 months Davids senior,
often traveled with his brother, but a more introverted personality led him to
play a less public role.
In the 1970s the brothers expanded their travels, trading works among
8/11/2014 11:33 AM
4 of 6
New Posts
+13 posts this hour
Most Popular
Lists
Video
Country Cash Kings
capitalized on price differentials between markets. Price transparency in the

art market was still years away, so buyers in New York remained ignorant of
prices fetched recently in London or Paris.
Joe is an absolute genius, says New York dealer David Nash, who used to
run the impressionist and modern paintings department at Sothebys. You
can call him at three in the morning and he will remember what price he paid
for a painting, what currency he used and what the exchange rate was at the
time.
When the speculative art boom hit Japan in the 1980s, the brothers pounced.
Mostly the Nahmads served as wholesalers to clients like the Fuji Television
Gallery in Tokyo. The Nahmads amassed so much cash selling to the Japanese
during the 1980s that when the art crash hit in 1989, they kept on buying, at
fire-sale prices, boosting their inventory.
Over the years, say friends and family, Joe Nahmad changed, from outgoing
and extravagant to reclusive. He has remained unmarried, living at various
times in Marbella, Paris and Monte Carlo, leaving it to his brothers and
brokers to execute trades. Though David insists Joe suffers from poor health
and has curtailed his involvement, a half-dozen sources who know the family
maintain that Joe remains in charge. Stories about him abound, many of
them underlining his aversion to paying for things. London art dealer Ivor
Braka recalls a breakfast at Les Deux Magots in Paris, where Joe consumed 14
croissants. When the waiter tallied the bill and asked Joe how many hed
eaten, Braka says Joe answered, Two or three. Joe never tips waiters, says
his London nephew Helly.
Joe Nahmad had his brushes with the law, according to a 1994 feature in
ArtNews, the only long story ever written about the family. Joe was arrested,
imprisoned and fined in Italy for possession of $70,000 worth of stolen
British pounds in 1957, the story says, and in 1961 the Italian revenue office
investigated him for failure to pay taxes on $92 million in stock market
trades.
Joe only gave FORBES a brief interview, to respond to the charges aired in
ArtNews. He unwittingly received the stolen currency in a business deal, he
maintains. He was questioned rather than detained, and he was eventually
acquitted of all charges. The Italian revenue investigation? Not true, he says.
There have been no allegations of legal improprieties in recent years, save for
a salacious sexual harassment complaint filed in 2005 by an employee of the
Helly Nahmad Gallery in Manhattan. Art Dealer in Kinky Sex Suit,
screamed a New York Post headline, Gallery Big Wanted 3-Way. The
Nahmads settled, and both sides agreed not to talk about the case.
Over the last decade, as the eldest sons of David and Ezra have grown up and
joined the family business, the Nahmads have raised their profile. Davids son
runs a sleek Manhattan gallery designed by architect Peter Marino, while his
cousin runs an elegant 6,000-square-foot space in Londons tony Mayfair
district.
Though the family is close, there are tensions. My son likes publicity a lot,
says David, frowning. I dont like publicity. David was pained when his
London nephew bought 50 paintings by British contemporary superstar
Damien Hirst, an artist whose astronomical prices David dismisses as
speculative. Ignoring his uncles opinion turned out to be good business. He
made 500% on his investment in the space of five years. A graduate of
8/11/2014 11:33 AM
5 of 6
New Posts
circles.
+13 posts this hour
Most Popular
Lists
Video
Country Cash Kings
Not so Davids son, who dropped out of an art course at Christies in 1997. He
displays a brash, streetwise manner, frequenting hip nightclubs and hanging
out with celebrities like stuntman David Blaine and actor Johnny Depp. Im a
businessman, he maintains. I sell a lot of paintings to many collectors; the
last few years have been record-breaking for us.
Manhattan dealer Jack Tilton says hes done deals with the New York Helly
and is in negotiations with him about the familys stock of Monets. A lot of
this material is drying up, Tilton notes. There are very few sources.
The Nahmads are quite familiar with the law of supply and demand.
Summing up his familys philosophy, David Nahmad says: There is very little
art, compared to the amount of people who want to buy it.
Subscribe to Forbes and Save. Click Here.
Comments are turned off for this post.
Report Corrections
Reprints & Permissions
8/11/2014 11:33 AM
6 of 6
New Posts
+13 posts this hour
Most Popular
Lists
Video
Country Cash Kings
Jay Z And Beyonce's Ticket

Sales Top $100 Million
Patrons Use App To Boycott

Israel In Aisles
see photos
Best And Worst Places For

Business 2014
From student satisfaction and graduation rates, to career

success and student debt, this ranking counts what matters.
BUSINESS
INVESTING
TECHNOLOGY
ENTREPRENEURS
Conferences
Education
Products
Forbes Reinventing America

Summit
Forbes School of Business

at Ashford University
Forbes Identity Protection
Forbes Womens Summit

Forbes 400 Philanthropy Summit
Forbes Under 30 Summit
Forbes CIO Summit
Forbes CMO Summit
Forbes Healthcare Summit
Forbes and NAPFA Advisor
iConference
Forbes Global CEO Conference
2014 Forbes.com LLC All Rights Reserved
Newsletters
Forbes Investor
Special Situation Survey
Forbes Dividend Investor
Forbes Premium Income
Report
Investing Newsletters
OP/ED
Real-Time Billionaires
LEADERSHIP
LIFESTYLE
LISTS
Forbes Newsfeeds
Reprints & Permissions
Company Info
2 Free Issues
Subscriber Services
Gift Subscription
Forbes Press Room
Forbes China
Forbes Poland
RealClear
Forbes Careers
Forbes India
Forbes Romania
RealClear Politics
Contact Us
Forbes Israel
Forbes Russia
RealClear Markets
Sitemap
Forbes Mexico
Forbes Spain
RealClear World
Help
Forbes Middle East
Advertise
Terms and Conditions
Privacy Statement
RealClear Sports
Market Data by Morningstar
AdChoices
8/11/2014 11:33 AM
Christie's And Sotheby's Going For Their Biggest Auctions Ever As Art...
http://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2012/11/13/christies-and-sot...
http://onforb.es/TB8Dwv
Agustino Fontevecchia Forbes Staff
Bringing You The Bull And Bear Case From The Markets Desk
MARKETS
11/13/2012 @ 12:50PM
4,107 views
Comment Now
The art market is playing its last cards

for the year this week as both major
auction houses host their marquee
events in New York. Sothebys is
scheduled to hold its Post-War and
Contemporary auction on Tuesday, while
rival Christies is slated do the same on
Wednesday, and both are trying to close
the year with a bang.
Picasso's "Still Life with Tulips" was last week's star Sotheby's
Despite a marked slowdown this year after a booming 2011, both auction
houses are going all in, with their top estimates between $441 and $502
million, setting them up for their biggest nights ever or huge
disappointments. It appears that it will all come down to the quality of their
major pieces, which this year include works by Mark Rothko, Jackson
Pollock, Franz Kline, and the always entertaining Andy Warhol.
Last week was a disappointing one for the world of art. Both Impressionist
and Modern auctions came in well-below estimates. Christies went first,
seeing sales hit $205 million (estimates called for at least $250 million; even
the top three works, by revered names like Monet, Kandinsky, and Miro,
failed to top estimates. Sothebys did even worse, recording sales for $163
million (they expected at least $169 million), despite a solid showing for a
market favorite: Pablo Picasso.
While a 1905 Monet sold at Christies took the top spot for the week, selling
for $43.8 million, the Spanish superstar saw six of his nine works make more
than $81 million at Sothebys, or half of the total proceeds. The peak of the
night was 1932 work titled Still Life with Tulips sold by casino billionaire
Steve Wynn. With bidding by famed billionaire dealer David Nahmad, the
piece went for $41.5 million to an unidentified telephone bidder; still, the
work that hung behind the front desk of the Wynn Las Vegas was expected to
1 of 3
8/11/2014 11:30 AM
fetch between $35 and $50 million.

The art market is a lot weaker, explained Thomas Galbraith, head of
analytics at artnet, who expects another lackluster week. The problem is that
the market is, as one commentator put it, allergic of second-tier works.
People are taking less risk and going for works that are proven, noted
Galbraith, the market is taking a step back, its a self-aware market.
Art had an amazing 2011, the culmination of a surge in prices that started in
2009. In the aftermath of a brutal global recession and financial crisis, rich
people were looking for a place to park their money, and extreme market
volatility coupled with record-low interest rates didnt help. As money flowed
into art, the surge continued into 2011, when prices for contemporary works,
according to artnets index, were up more than five-fold going into the third
quarter from January. The art market rebounded too aggressively since
2009, it was too fast, too furious Galbraith said.
With a flattish market in 2012, sellers arent bringing their best pieces to the
table. Some of the works offered last week werent that good, explained
Galbraith. While in financial markets corrections offer the opportunity to
buy the dip, or, as Warren Buffett would put it, be greedy when others are
fearful, in art, weak markets mean lower quality works, even from top artists.
If youre following the Warren Buffett school of thought, continued
Galbraith, you should sit this one out: the market isnt low enough to buy or
high enough to sell.
The aforementioned Picasso, for example, performed financially pretty much
like a Treasury bond. [Picasso's Tulips] sold for about $41 million, but since
about 2002 it has returned about 3% per annum, Galbraith analyzed. Gold,
for example, returned nearly 50% per year over those ten years, while a major
bank like JPMorgan Chase wouldve given negative returns of 2.9%.
This is a necessary, self-aware correction, according to Galbraith, not a
crash. There is still a lot of money tied into the market, particularly in the
contemporary and modern segments, but buyers are getting saturated
(people are well invested into the art markets, buyers have purchased lots of
good pieces).
A crisis can also be turned into opportunity. Galbraith believes the market is
setting itself up for a good rebound over the next few years. He also
believes major established names with decent estimates should do well this
week. If there happens to be a good piece flying under the radar, it may be a
good time to buy.
It will be an interesting couple of nights over at Sothebys and Christies. The
two major players in the auction world are going for gold. Christies, for
2 of 3
8/11/2014 11:30 AM
example, is claiming this weeks is the strongest sale ever presented on the
market. They estimate sales should be between $309 and $441 million;
their most valuable auction was held this May, raking in $388 million.
Sothebys is going even higher, expecting to sell between $363 and $502
million. Its a bold bet: with a stagnant market, they could be setting
themselves up for a big disappointment.
This article is available online at: http://onforb.es/TB8Dwv
3 of 3
8/11/2014 11:30 AM
During The Big Art Auctions This Fall, Take A Second Look At The Res...
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kathryntully/2012/10/18/during-the-big-art-...
http://onforb.es/U8VHBm
Kathryn Tully Contributor
I write about art and investing

Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
INVESTING
10/18/2012 @ 9:40AM
1,838 views
Comment Now
The beginning of the fall auction season always produces dramatic headlines
about the art works that achieved record-breaking prices and those that
bombed, yet beyond the hype, all auction results can be misleading. During
last weeks contemporary art auctions in London, for example, the top lot
sold was Eric Claptons painting by Gerhard Richter, Abstracktes Bild
(809-4). The painting went for 21.3 million ($34.2 million) at Sothebys,
way above the estimate of 9 million to 12 million, and set a new auction
record for a living artist.
In total, Sothebys made 69.9 million ($112.1
million) of sales from its contemporary and
20th century Italian art auctions in London
last week, close to its top estimate of 74
million. That looked pretty fantastic on the
face of it, yet without the sale of that one
Clapton painting, the auction house would
not have even reached its low estimate of 54
million.
Auction house sales figures are misleading for
The sale of Gerhard Richter's painting
Abstracktes Bild (809-4) for $34.2 million at
another crucial reason. After any auction, the
Sotheby's last week set a new auction record for
a living artist. (Image credit: AFP/Getty Images
final sale result published by the auction
via @daylife)
house for each lot is not the hammer price for
that work, or in other words, the agreed sale
price reached when the auctioneers gavel finally comes down. Instead, the
auction house also adds on the buyers premium that was paid to that
hammer price amount.
That buyers premium, the amount of commission that all successful bidders
must pay the auction house, is pretty hefty. In New York, the big global
auction houses currently charge 25% of the hammer price up to $50,000,
20% of the amount above $50,000 to $1 million, and 12% of the rest,
1 of 3
8/11/2014 11:31 AM
although those percentages and thresholds vary from country to country,

depending where the sale is held and the currency it is held in.
Why does this matter? Well, it obviously inflates the overall price achieved
for each lot that it successfully sold. But because auction houses only include
the buyers commission in their final sales results, and not their pre-sale
estimates, it also makes the difference between, say, the estimated price for a
Picasso painting and the actual price it sells for, look a lot better than it
actually is.
Auction houses say this practice is a well-known convention, but its actually
a big deal for anyone trying to extract price comparisons from auction market
information, which as I mentioned recently, is the only real source of art
price data out there.
Without the buyers premium, last weeks results start to look a little
different. Take out the buyers premium and Eric Claptons Richter was sold
for 19 million, not over $21 million. Christies combined sales of post-war,
contemporary and Italian art in London last week, which raised 41.2 million
($62 million), compared to its estimate of between 36.6 million and 51.9
million, was pretty weak already. Take out the buyers premium and the
auction house barely reached its low estimate.
The buyers premium issue makes the record-breaking prices trumpeted by
auction houses and reported in the press pretty misleading. With Novembers
impressionist and modern art and post-war and contemporary sales in New
York fast approaching, thats definitely something to keep in mind. Here are a
few of the star lots up for auction in New York next month:
Sothebys is going to try to follow its success selling Eric Claptons Richter in
London with the sale of Abstraktes Bild (712), Richters first painting from
1990, in its evening sale of contemporary art on November 13. The estimate?
Over $16 million.
Also in its November 13 contemporary evening sale, Sothebys will offer No.1
(Royal, Red and Blue), painted by Mark Rothko in 1954, one of the paintings
the artist himself selected to appear in his solo show at the Art Institute of
Chicago the same year. The estimate: $35 million to $50 million.
In its November 14 sale, Christies will offer Andy Warhols 3D silkscreen
painting Statue of Liberty, produced in 1962. The estimate is also in excess
of $35 million.
Of nine Picasso paintings offered in Sothebys impressionist and modern art
evening sale on November 5, Nature morte aux tulipes, painted in March
1932, is expected to fetch $35 million to $50 million.
The star lot of the New York impressionist and modern art evening sale at
Christies on November 7 will be one of Claude Monets famous water lilies
series Nymphas, painted in 1905. The estimate is between $30 million and
$50 million.
Other than collectively indicating that when an auction house isnt really sure
what a super famous painting will sell for, it sticks a price tag of $30 million
2 of 3
8/11/2014 11:31 AM
to $50 million on it, the thing that all these estimates have in common in that
they do not include buyers premiums. Whatever Christiess or Sothebys say
these paintings fetch come November, the hammer price will be lower.
Follow me on Twitter or find me on Facebook.
This article is available online at: http://onforb.es/U8VHBm
3 of 3
8/11/2014 11:31 AM
Dispatches From Miami Beach: Art Basel Day 1 - Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/sites/calebmelby/2012/12/06/dispatches-from-mi...
http://onforb.es/TK82KD
Caleb Melby Forbes Staff
I read SEC documents like it's my job. Because it's my job.
LISTS
12/06/2012 @ 2:20PM
402 views
Comment Now
Art Basel Miami Beach opened to

the public at noon today, unleasing
the first wave of the more than
50,000 visitors who will visit the
fair this year, to witness $2.5
billion worth of art on display
from 260 of the worlds top
galleries. As the art market
continues to pull out of its
financial crisis doldrums, sales are
expected to top $500 million. And
theres more. Twenty-two satellite
events on the Beach and
in Miami proper those
collections are not included in the
fairs value estimates.
"Rum Run," Robert Indiana. Photo courtesy of Art Info.
VIP and press lines were full, with throngs more waiting outside
the Miami Beach Convention Center. A few of those did their best to sneak
past security, resulting in at least one brief skirmish.
Fully anticipating the overwhelming nature of billions of dollars of art on
display, the first galleries inside the convention center entrance had familiar
favorites on display. The Helly Nahmad Gallery, from New Yorks 76th Street,
showed off an impressive collection ranging from Calders Tableu Noir
(1970) (sold at auction in 2010 for $2.5 million), some Rothko color fields, a
small collection of Mirs, and some Picassos, including a Le Peintre et Son
Modele, a piece from a series of works from 1963-64 that have captured
anywhere from $2.8 to $13.7 million at auction.
Across the way, the Galerie Gmurzynska from Zurich had similar fare:
1 of 2
8/11/2014 11:39 AM
Dispatches From Miami Beach: Art Basel Day 1 - Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/sites/calebmelby/2012/12/06/dispatches-from-mi...
mixed-media Mirs, Picasso drawings, and a small Calder sculpture, bizarrely

juxtaposed against the debut of Robert Indianas Rum Run.
Some Highlights From Further In:
Chuck Close Woodburytypes of Willem Dafoe, Brad Pitt and others at Art
Kabinett, courtesy of Two Palms.
Jonathan Horowitzs photorealistic, partisan, UV ink on vinyl Coke/Pepsi
(240 Cans) (2011) (Sadie Coles booth). A 2010 work featuring 230 cans sold
for a mere $30,000 at Sothebys in October.
Gerhard Richters dizzying digital print Strip (2011) at Marian Goodman
Gallerys booth.
Gimhongsoks creepy/playful bronze Bearlike Construction (2012) from
the Kukje Gallery in Seoul.
More to come.
Follow me on Twitter.
This article is available online at: http://onforb.es/TK82KD
2 of 2
8/11/2014 11:39 AM
'New Era' For Art Markets As Collectors Drop Half A Billion At Christie...
http://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2013/05/20/new-era-for-art-...
Agustino Fontevecchia (http://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/) Forbes Staff
Bringing You The Bull And Bear Case From The Markets Desk
FOLLOW
MARKETS (/MARKETS)
Comment Now
5/20/2013 @ 2:59PM
6,695 views
Follow Comments
It seems that its not just

the stock market that is
firing on all cylinders,
breaking record after
record. Last week,
Christies marquee
post-War and
contemporary art sale
fetched a record $495
million, with more than
'Woman with flowered hat' by
Roy Lichtenstein sold for $56
nine works selling for over
million - Image credit:
$10 million. Amid a
AFP/Getty Images via @daylife)
stagnating global
economy and high
unemployment, the ultra-rich are raising the stakes on so-called alternative
investments like art and real estate, prompting a prominent Christies
executive to speak of a new era in the market.
It was truly a record-breaking night, and week, for Christies. Its evening sale
totaled nearly half a billion dollars, the highest value ever for any art auction.
16 artists made world auction records, and more than 20 buyers forked over
$5 million or more for individual pieces. What makes the sale all that more
impressive is the context: stubbornly high unemployment in the U.S.,
recession in Europe, and a slowdown in China, which had been the global
powerhouse in economic growth over the past several years.
1 of 4
8/11/2014 11:40 AM
The trend is clear. The wealthy are increasingly putting their capital into
luxury investments seen as alternatives. Over the past few days, billionaire
hedge fund manager Bill Ackman and a group of investors put down more
than $90 million for a penthouse in the luxury residential tower One57; they
have no intention of moving in.
Another hedge fund hotshot, Steve Cohen, recently paid $155 million
(http://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2013/03/26/hedgefund-billionaire-steve-cohens-155m-picasso-isnt-his-first-multi-million-pieceof-art/)for a piece by Pablo Picasso formerly owned by casino billionaire Steve
Wynn, a record according to several reports. If listings are any indication of
price trends, these dont seem set to fall anytime soon: only a few days ago, the
Cooper Beech Farm became the most expensive U.S. home for sale, listed for
$190 million as my colleague Morgan Brenan reported
(http://www.forbes.com/sites/morganbrennan/2013/05/19/asking190-million-this-is-americas-new-most-expensive-home-for-sale/).
Last weeks auction saw impressive demand for
some of the most expensive pieces. Jackson
Pollocks Number 19 was sold for more than $58
million (including fees) amid aggressive bidding
from several potential buyers. The piece had last
gone for auction in May 1993 when it was bought by
LVMHs Francois Pinault for $2.4 million, according
to the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com
/2013/05/16/arts/design/christies-art-auctionsets-record-at-495-million.html). In other words,
the piece delivered a 2,317% return in 20 years.
A 1969 Gerhard Richter titled Domplatz, Mailand
sold at Sothebys evening sale fetched $37.1 million, setting a new record for a
living artist. Richter, who was the current holder of that record, can tell
prospective buyers his works are a good investment: the piece had been
bought in 1998 in London for a then-record $3.6 million by the Pritzker
family, owners of Hyatt hotels and resorts. Total return: 931%.
Demand for good quality pieces, and artists with good prospects, was strong at
Christies. Jean-Michel Basquiats Dustheads skyrocketed in value to a
record $48.8 million, according to the auction house, while bidding for his
Furious Man, which went for $5 million before fees, was intense. Other
highlights include Roy Lichtensteins Woman with Flowered Hat which sold
for $56 million and Mark Rothkos Untitled (Black on Maroon), purchased for
$27 million.
Along with three contemporary art auctions, including Leonardo Di Caprios
Eleventh Hour sale, Sothebys saw its spring week sales figure climb to
$638.6 million.
The post-War and contemporary art markets are definitely red hot. As Ive
2 of 4
8/11/2014 11:40 AM
previously reported (http://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2013/04

/24/global-art-market-down-as-china-tanks-50-while-u-s-and-u-k-salesimprove/), the total value of contemporary art sales grew from $850 million in
2002 to about $6 billion last year. This trend accompanied a steady decline in
prices for modern, impressionist, and old masters over the same time period,
according to artnet.
Art, along with real estate and other alternative
investments, present a risky opportunity. While
prices have risen exponentially, several pieces by top
artists including Franz Kline and Jeff Koons failed to
find buyers. At the same time, thin liquidity means
prominent collectors with deep pockets, including
the Mugrabis, Nahmads, and megadealers like Larry
Gagosian, all present in last weeks auction, can steer
the market.
Another trend to watch is the rise of China as a
global powerhouse. Chinese buyers, as I explained
here (http://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia
/2013/04/24/global-art-market-down-as-china-tanks-50-while-u-s-andu-k-sales-improve/), are concentrated on domestic artists, meaning they dont
have a massive effect on Western favorites such as abstract impressionism and
pop art. Yet in 2011, Chinas total sales assimilated those of the post-War and
contemporary market mentioned above.
If the results from Christies record-shattering auction are any indication, art
prices on the top-end dont seem to be facing much resistance. Other firms in
the luxury sector like Coach and Michael Kors have had a decent 2013 from a
stock market perspective, while gold has been the big loser.
It remains to be seen whether this new era for the art world can be
sustained, from a price perspective. But what is clear is that appetite for top
pieces and highly-esteemed artists remains strong, despite the economic
headwinds.
4 comments, 2 called-out
PROMOTED STORIES
3 of 4
Comment Now
Follow Comments
Recommended by
8/11/2014 11:40 AM
4 of 4
8/11/2014 11:40 AM
Six Risks To The Global Art Market in 2014 - Forbes
1 of 3
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kathryntully/2013/05/30/six-risks-to-the-glo...
http://onforb.es/11EucDK
Kathryn Tully Contributor
I write about art and investing

INVESTING
5/30/2013 @ 6:31PM
3,741 views
Comment Now
What are the biggest risks to the art market in

2014? What is the very worst thing that could
happen and would that send art prices
plummeting?
These issues were discussed last week at a panel in
New York organized by the Art Investment
Council, founded by the folks at Artvest. The
discussion focused on unexpected events that can
and do shake the art market, such as a fire or a
natural disaster, terrorism, fraud or other criminal
activity.
What would it take to spook the global

art market? (Image credit: Getty Images
via @daylife)
As Jonathan Crystal, principal of insurance

advisers Crystal & Company, put it, If you accept the premise, and many
people even in this room do not, that art is an asset class then you should
accept the broader premise of applying disciplines that are actively used in
the investment world. One of those disciplines is stress-testing.
A few of the most interesting points that came up:
1) A fire or other disaster somewhere with a big concentration of
art, such as the Geneva or Singapore freeport, could destroy up to
$100 billion of art in one go. Ron Fiamma, global head of private
collections for AIGs Private Client Group, estimated that is the value of art
currently stored in Genevas freeport, although as he said, no one really
knows. He did say, though, that it was enough for reinsurers to want to avoid
it. Most wont insure anything going into these facilities anymore because
the aggregation values are so high. Any one of these facilities presents a
tremendous amount of risk.
2) A dramatic event that affected art prices in one part of the
world could affect prices everywhere. Stuart Feld, president of New
Yorks Hirschl & Adler gallery, said that the global breadth of the market
8/11/2014 11:41 AM
2 of 3
should give collectors some protection against an implosion. Thats not to

say there wont be some kind of price correction, but I dont think it should be
a disaster. But Michael Plummer, co-founder of Artvest, pointed out that the
art market is based on confidence and is easily spooked. In 1990, you saw it
collapse virtually overnight. The same happened again in the fall of 2008.
3) There is a very small group of collectors propping up the top
end of several parts of the art market. For American Art, I would say
that there are really three very high-end players, said Feld. If any one of the
three is interested in a work, that work can bring an unprecedented price. If
none of the three is interested, the price fetched is completely different. And
according to Plummer, the family of Helly Nahmad, currently under
investigation about his alleged connection with a money laundering and
gambling ring, has single-handedly supported the Impressionist and Modern
market through all the market downturns of the last 30 years.
4) In some areas of the market, the withdrawal of one heavyweight
collector could have a devastating impact. If the Nahmad case goes to
trial and he has to pay large fine, that could affect his ability to buy, which
could have a very deleterious impact on the Impressionist and Modern
market, said Plummer. The contemporary market has a much larger base of
buyers right now, so I dont think that if any one buyer withdrew there it
would have the same impact.
5) Recent allegations of money laundering and fraud in the art
world may be just the tip of the iceberg, given the secrecy of the
market. Outside the auction market, a lot of private transactions take place
that are never known about, said Jeremy Kroll, president and CEO of K2
Intelligence, an investigative and risk analytics consulting firm. People dont
want to admit they have handled stolen or fake art, but picking through
remains after a fire, for example, at a major freeport, you would start to peel
back the layers of the onion. People could be using freeports to minimize tax
or launder money, you just dont know.
6) Given the risk of buying fakes or stolen works in the art market,
buyers need to do a lot more due diligence on the background of
the work and who is selling it. Thats particularly true now that many
artist foundations have stopped authenticating art because of the massive
amounts of money and huge liabilities involved. Otherwise, more people
will just sit on the sidelines, says Plummer. If theres a high concentration
of buyers that are driving the market, what happens if they step back?
Which is a very good question. And if its the case that stress testing the top
end of the art market reveals that it is prone to fraud and money laundering,
illiquid, opaque and easily spooked, and in some cases, propped up by just a
few collectors, is this really an asset class at all?
8/11/2014 11:41 AM
3 of 3
Follow me on Twitter or find me on Facebook.
This article is available online at: http://onforb.es/11EucDK
8/11/2014 11:41 AM
Scenes From An Arraignment: Billionaire Art Scion Helly Nahmad And ...
1 of 8
http://www.forbes.com/sites/richardbehar/2013/04/20/scenes-from-an-arr...
http://onforb.es/14FkDXj
Richard Behar Contributor
Investigative journalist, at work on a book about Bernie Madoff.

BUSINESS
4/20/2013 @ 5:56PM
26,924 views
Comment Now
When youre sitting at an arraignment squeezed shoulder-to-shoulder with

alleged Russian mafia members and associates in a 34-defendant gambling
case its hard not to fantasize how fun it would be to sit instead at a table
playing poker with them.
It took me a half hour to realize that I wasnt in the press section at federal
criminal court in Manhattan yesterday afternoon. There were three rows in
the front, stuffed with 21 of the defendants, on benches meant to comfortably
hold 15. Plus me. But by then it was too late to move, as there wasnt a free
seat anywhere in the chaotic courtroom, packed with upwards of 100 people,
many standing, including some of the countrys top criminal defense lawyers.
To my right sits a 45-year-old,
gentle-faced bald man in casual green
slacks, holding a piece of paper and a
pen. I asked if he was a reporter and,
clearly in no mood to talk, he curtly
waved me off. In fact, he seemed utterly
miserable, and with good reason. When
he rose to plead not guilty, I learned that
he was Donald McCalmont, who just
three days earlier FBI.gov had placed on
its fugitives page.
Helly Nahmad and his attorney, Ben Brafman, at

yesterday's arraignment (AP Photo)
In luckier days, Don once took 7th place

in an Omaha Hi-Lo tournament at the Foxwoods casino in Connecticut,
where the prize pool was 40 grand. Today he faces a maximum of 40 years in
prison for racketeering and money laundering (although it should be said
high up in this story that every defendant is of course innocent until proven
guilty, all of them thus far have pled innocent, and maxes are almost never
8/11/2014 11:42 AM
2 of 8
handed down in gambling cases; far from it.)

Prosecutors say that McCalmont, and dozens more, played major roles in a
global gambling racket it stretched from the U.S to Russia, Cyprus and
Ukraine that catered to billionaires, Russian oligarchs, Hollywood stars,
Wall Street bankers, and pro athletes. On Tuesday, agents made busts and
raids at numerous locations in New York, Detroit, Philadelphia and Los
Angeles, before declaring they had nailed a $100+ million money-laundering
case operated by Russian organized crime.
While readers may find it hard to get steamed up by a bunch of guys getting
together to play an unlicensed hand of poker and wager on sports, this case
may prove different. If the prosecutors are right, a man at the pinnacle the
feds say he took a $10 million rake just in a one-month period from the
operation was none other than fugitive Alimzhan Tokhtakhunov
(nicknamed Taiwanchik, or Little Taiwanese.) And that could mean bad
news for many defendants, whether they knew this fact or not.
"Taiwanchik" (photo: Interpol)
Taiwanchik gained his notoriety in 2002, when

he was accused of bribing ice skating judges in
the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. (He was
arrested in Italy, but an Italian court refused to
extradite him to the U.S., instead freeing him.)
The feds call him a major figure in international
Eurasian Organized Crime who has been
involved in drug distribution, illegal arms sales
and trafficking in stolen vehicles. In the current
gambling case, hes accused of using his status as
a thief-in-law (or vory v zakone) a select group
of the highest-level criminals in Russia to
resolve disputes with gambling clients with
threats of violence.
Taiwanchik, who faces a max of 90 years in the current case, has often been
linked to Semion (The Brainy Don) Mogilevich, who the FBI once called the
boss of bosses of most Russian mob syndicates and the most dangerous
mobster in the world. Both men are believed to be living today in Russia.
But the man next to me, McCalmont, was way down that chain, according to
prosecutors. (Hell, he may not have known many on the links above him.)
The feds say they can prove, among other things, that McCalmont assisted
other defendants in collecting a $2 million betting debt that a client owed, by
buying 50% of the clients plumbing company. The gambling establishment
then allegedly used bank accounts and companies such as that plumbing
outfit to launder tens of millions of dollars of illegal betting proceeds.
8/11/2014 11:42 AM
3 of 8
On my immediate left, my shoulder rubs a friendlier defendant

51-year-old Alexander (Sasha) Zaverukha of Pennsylvania wearing a
charcoal sport coat and dark slacks. He has strong hands. He takes my card,
after I suggest that maybe we can have a chat at some point.
In a couple of years, he says with a broad smile.
Promise?
No.
Sasha faces ten years, the minimum of the maximums in this case. Hes
charged with operating a bookkeeping business, as well as an unlawful
Internet gaming operation that extended credit to customers.
To his left sits another Alexander, nicknamed Marushka, and surnamed
Katchaloff. Hes 53, jolly, portly and wearing white designer glasses, and is
accused of similar crimes as Sashas. Im not a lawyer, Im a defendant, he
says, smiling, in answer to a question of mine. Next to him: Brooklyns
Dmitry (Blondie) Druzhinsky. Hes 42 and has a surfers good looks. He
faces 40 years, thanks in part to allegedly laundering millions from his sports
gambling business through shell accounts in Cyprus.
Directly in front of me is Ronald Uy, who is looking at 22 years on a
money laundering structuring charge. On Tuesday he was arrested
and his promising career as a branch manager for JPMorgan Chase
went up in flames. Several days ago, his LinkedIn page (no longer
up) boasted that hes a highly accomplished Banking Professional
with solid and progressive experience who has been repeatedly
promoted into leadership roles based on leading banks through
critical transitions. The feds say he helped a major leader of the ring with
tips on how to structure transactions in order to avoid bank reporting
requirements.
Just 30 minutes into the proceeding, Uy was slumped over, staring at the
yellow stars, suns and (what look like) free birds that are unjustly weaved
throughout the courtrooms blue carpet. The room was stuffy, but he never
removed his long, wrinkled jacket.
The biggest name in a defendants seat is Hillel (Helly) Nahmad, in the first
row, maybe ten feet away, wearing his trademark white shirt under a slick
black suit. On Tuesday morning, I was tipped off to an FBI-IRS-NYPD raid
that was in progress at his art gallery at Manhattans luxurious Carlyle Hotel.
I had the scene to myself for an hour, a reporters version of holding aces,
until a photographer named Michael Appleton appeared on behalf of the
New York Times. I took off to publish the scoop, but he stayed long enough
to get the money shot agents hauling Nahmads computers from the
gallery. (For my less-impressive photos of the raid, see my Forbes story from
8/11/2014 11:42 AM
4 of 8
Tuesday.)
The feds claim that Helly, the 34-year-old heir of the billionaire Nahmad art
dealer family, is at the center of the case; in fact, they use his surname in the
title of the two enterprises detailed in the 84-page indictment. His family is
one of the richest and most powerful art-dealing dynasties in the world.
Forbes estimated his father, Davids, fortune at $1.75 billion as of last month
(while its believed the entire family is worth more than $3 billion). Reached
in London on Tuesday, David Nahmad said, I know almost nothing about
the raid that morning of his sons gallery. As for allegations that the raid is
connected with Russian organized crime, he said, I think its totally stupid.
Intriguingly, the indictment states that the illegal enterprise was financed by
a number of different individuals and entities, including Nahmads father.
It states that Helly made two separate wire transfers, totaling $1.35 million,
from his fathers bank account in Switzerland to bank accounts in the U.S. to
help finance the gambling scam. Reached by Forbes again yesterday on that
specific point, David said that he would ask one of his attorneys, Richard
Golub, to talk with me. Hopefully Golub will, but he probably wont.
[ARTICLE CONTINUES ON NEXT PAGE]
A source very close to the Nahmad family tells Forbes that Helly lives in the
ritzy yet overpriced Trump Tower, enjoys a chauffer-driven car, dates
supermodels, spends a lot of time in Monte Carlo, loves to gamble, and is
close friends with actor Leo DiCaprio.
In a profile of the family in 2007 titled The Art of the Deal, Forbes senior
editor Susan Adams detailed how the Nahmads are among the worlds most
influential megadealers of modern and impressionist art. They boast an
arsenal of well-known names, from Matisse and Monet to Renoir and
Rothko. While they conduct most of their buying and selling through the
Sothebys and Christies auction houses, a good deal of art is also sold though
Hellys New York gallery, as well as the gallery of a cousin also named
Helly Nahmad in London. (While his cousin attended the prestigious
Courtauld Institute of Art in London, the New York Helly dropped out of an
art course at Christies in 1997.)
The Nahmads descend from a

prosperous banker from Aleppo, Syria.
Today, their art inventory takes up
15,000 square feet of a duty-free
building next to Genevas international
airport. Three sources in a position to
8/11/2014 11:42 AM
5 of 8
know told Forbes Adams that the

warehouse in 2007 contained between
4,500 and 5,000 works of art, worth
between $3-4 billion at the time. (The
holdings included 300 Picassos, worth
some $900 million.) While Hellys
father, David, uses a buy-and-hold
Helly with billionaire father, David, and a Picasso (photo:
strategy with the familys artworks, he
Getty Images)
takes big risks by trading millions of
dollars in currencies and commodities
plus betting hundreds of thousands on backgammon in Monte Carlo, his
permanent residence.
In the courtroom, after looking at my business card, Helly shoots me a sharp
eye strands of his fashionable hair sweeping across his face. He faces a
maximum of 92 years. Thats 92 years! One of the most noticeable things is
how young and trendy he and so many of his arrested pals are quite a few
of them sitting in his row or just behind him, or linked together with artsy
photos on Facebook. All of them are clearly pals, bobbing their heads around
to see who else is here. (Everyone is here.) They look confused, but not very
scared.
To Hellys right sits Jonathan Hirsch, age 30, wearing his hair below his
shoulders and what looks to be a classy thigh-length thin gray pea coat. He
comes across more like a high school poet or rock star than a (relativelyspeaking) kid facing up to 32 years behind bars. In fact, hes a math whiz.
Near Hirsch is Moshe Oratz, wearing a pinstripe suit, a pleasant grin, and a
black yarmulke atop his collar-length curly hair. Hes 37, looks much
younger, and faces 30 years.
To Hellys left is a 26-year-old New Yorker named Eugene Trincher, who
wears a movie-star face, while facing 30. His Beverly Hills-based brother,
Illya, seated behind him, is a year older, and is accused of being such a key
player in the ring that hes staring at a maximum of 97 years. 97 years!
The Trincher family is one of the cases biggest mysteries, as father Vadim
a fairly well-known professional poker player is alleged to have laundered
tens of millions of dollars from Russia and the Ukraine through Cyprus and
into the U.S. The feds call his arm the Taiwanchik-Trincher Organization.
(In 2009, he spent $5 million for a three-bedroom condo in the Trump
Tower, 12 floors up from the bachelor pad that Helly constructed out of four
separate apartments.)
The show begins at about
8/11/2014 11:42 AM
6 of 8
1:30pm, a half-hour late,

when a court clerk proclaims,
I apologize if I say any of
these names incorrectly. A
gray-haired man in dark
sunglasses is leaning against a
Feds name poker pro Vadim Trincher as key player in Russian mob ring
(photo: Cardplayer.com)
wall. One defendant is
displaying his turquoise
sneakers. A stunning Russian
blonde in giant pumps and a white scarf wrapped around her neck was said
to be the mother of a major defendant. One woman wore a blindingly-bright
red dress, another fur.
But the clear winner of the glamour pageant, seated three rows behind me, is
Colorados Molly Bloom, age 34. The lightly-tanned, gum-snapping Bloom
(nicknamed the Poker Princess) has her brown hair in an innocent ponytail,
and a (presumably real) pearl necklace over a way-tight tan sweater. Many
lawyers couldnt take their eyes off her. Her photos dont do her justice,
says one local newspaper reporter.
Molly faces up to ten years for operating an
illegal gambling business.
For years she has organized high-stakes
poker salons in lavish homes and hotels on
both coasts of the U.S. (The secret games
were sometimes secured by armed guards,
according to one attendee.) Mollys alleged
stable of players has included celebs
DiCaprio, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and
Defendant Molly Bloom, on her Facebook page in
2011
Tobey Maguire, and athletes Alex Rodriguez
and Pete Sampras. Whether any of these
stars indulged in games sponsored by todays busted-up global enterprise
remains to be seen. Perhaps those answers will have to wait until 2014, when
a Harper-Collins memoir by Bloom is scheduled to be released.
Lead prosecutor Harris Fischman explains to the court how bookies all over
the world were engaged in a sophisticated money-laundering scheme, with
threats of violence used to enforce gambling debts. He announces he
wouldnt be surprised if there are 25,000 telephone intercepts (in English
and Russian) that were secretly-recorded and that will be used against the
defendants, as well as 300 bank accounts involved in the scam, with more
expected from cooperating countries. The FBI is imaging the many
computers seized in the raids, he says, and expects to have them back to the
defendants in two weeks.
One defendant who rose from his seat had a wire dangling from an ear, as he
8/11/2014 11:42 AM
7 of 8
tried (unsuccessfully) to understand what a Russian translator was saying

through it. He was short, stocky, suited, had a giant bald spot, and looked a
lot like Danny DeVito in the film Other Peoples Money. He seemed unable
to plead guilty or innocent, leading rows of defendants to laugh. Its not
funny, said Sasha next to me, but of course it was. And he laughed, too.
I looked around unsuccessfully for a 29-year-old defendant from Staten
Island named Joseph (Joe the Hammer) Mancuso, just to see what
someone with that nickname looks like. But at least I got to see his
powerhouse attorney, Ronald Fischetti, who has represented the likes of bad
girl Courtney Love, bad boy Dana Giaccheto (money manager to the stars),
the late Elaine Kaufman (of the famed Elaines bar) and Howard Johnson
(baseballs Mets).
Helly is represented by Benjamin Brafman, who won the acquittal of Sean P.
Diddy Combs in his 1999 illegal weapons and bribery charges. In 2011, he
got sexual-assault charges dropped against IMF head Dominique
Strauss-Kahn. We do not believe that Mr. Nahmad knowingly violated the
law and are confident that he will be exonerated, he tells Forbes. A second
super-lawyer, Paul Shechtman, is also on Hellys team.
The young Illya Trincher is represented by Las Vegas-based attorney David
Chesnoff, whose clients have included DiCaprio, Lindsay Lohan, Martha
Stewart, Britney Spears, Mike Tyson plus Phil Ivey, arguably the best poker
player in the world.
At one point, Chesnoff rose to tell the court that his client was arrested in Los
Angeles, and then flew with him to the arraignment with just one form of
identification: a passport card. Prosecutors wanted him to surrender it, but
Chesnoff requested they hold off until after the weekend so that Illya could
get an alternative form of ID a New York drivers license. We dont think
we want him moving around, countered the prosecutor. The judge agreed,
and ordered Chesnoff to chaperone his client to the Dept of Motor Vehicles
on Monday.
In fact, Judge Jesse Furman seemed
committed to showing the defense who
the boss is now. We live in a democracy,
but this courtroom is not a democracy,
he proclaimed. The 40-year-old judge set
a firm trial date for ten months from
now, a herculean deadline for defense
lawyers who will have to review a
Eugene, Vadim, and Illya Trincher (Facebook screen
capture)
mountain range of documents produced
by the government. After some gentle
protests, Furman extended the date, in stone, for June 2014. The
8/11/2014 11:42 AM
8 of 8
government estimates it will be a one-to-two month trial. And it promises to

be a dandy.
After 90 minutes in the courtroom yesterday, the spectacle is over, for now.
Outside the courthouse, one major defendant lights a cigarette just a few feet
from a newspaper photographer, who shoots photos of him in rapid
succession. The young man doesnt seem to mind one bit. I can always tell
when defendants are dying to have their photos taken, says the cameraman.
Another defendant who maintains his innocence, a
Florida-based poker champ named Abraham (EazyPeazy)
Mosseri, is also hanging out a few feet from the cameras. He is
wearing trendy five-toed brown sneakers that he announces
hed purchased on 57th Street. The photographers sense that
Abe ranked #10 among online money earners by HighStakes
Database really wants his photo taken. But theres no need;
his picture had already been disseminated a few days earlier by
the FBI.
The fugitive alert (see right) and indictment does not sit well
with EazyPeazys girlfriend, Lisa Lombardi. They [FBI] did not search his
house and did not tap his phones and must not have done a [sic]
investigation of him too much because they did not even know where he
lived, writes Lombardi. He is a professional poker player that bets sports
and was caught in the crossfire.Not that anyone really reads your articles
anyways since I see you only had 18 shares Facebook. lolBTW, his trendy
brown shoes cost $75 on sale. I know because I purchased them and
everyone knows what a trendy fashionable guy he is. If you would like to
come by and take another picture of any of his shoes just let me know and I
will set a real interview up for you. Maybe we will invite Leo [DiCaprio],
Tobey [Maguire] and A-Rod over at the same time. lol.
Deal me in.
[This story was updated to include information from additional sources.]

###
Richard Behar is the Contributing Editor, Investigations, for Forbes
magazine. He can be reached at rbehar@forbes.com
This article is available online at: http://onforb.es/14FkDXj
8/11/2014 11:42 AM

Art Market &amp; Nahmad Family

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

You might also like

Art Market &amp; Nahmad Family

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Art Market &amp; Nahmad Family

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Art of the Deal - Forbes

America's Top Colleges

Country Cash Kings

2 FREE issues of Forbes

Log in | Sign up | Connect

Susan Adams, Forbes Staff

Most Read on Forbes

4 Ways To Kill Vampires And Energize

On the evening of Nov. 6, in the packed Rockefeller Center salesroom of

Apple Loop: The iPhone 6 Will Launch

Tony Stewart Releases Statement And

The Art of the Deal - Forbes

America's Top Colleges

Country Cash Kings

The Art of the Deal - Forbes

America's Top Colleges

Country Cash Kings

The Art of the Deal - Forbes

America's Top Colleges

Country Cash Kings

capitalized on price differentials between markets. Price transparency in the

The Art of the Deal - Forbes

+13 posts this hour

America's Top Colleges

Country Cash Kings

Comments are turned off for this post.

Reprints & Permissions

The Art of the Deal - Forbes

America's Top Colleges

Country Cash Kings

Jay Z And Beyonce's Ticket

Patrons Use App To Boycott

Best And Worst Places For

From student satisfaction and graduation rates, to career

Forbes Reinventing America

Forbes School of Business

Forbes Identity Protection

Forbes Womens Summit

2014 Forbes.com LLC All Rights Reserved

Forbes Press Room

Forbes Middle East

Terms and Conditions

Market Data by Morningstar

The art market is playing its last cards

fetch between $35 and $50 million.

2014 Forbes.com LLC All Rights Reserved

I write about art and investing

although those percentages and thresholds vary from country to country,

This article is available online at: http://onforb.es/U8VHBm

2014 Forbes.com LLC All Rights Reserved

Dispatches From Miami Beach: Art Basel Day 1 - Forbes

I read SEC documents like it's my job. Because it's my job.

Art Basel Miami Beach opened to

"Rum Run," Robert Indiana. Photo courtesy of Art Info.

Dispatches From Miami Beach: Art Basel Day 1 - Forbes

mixed-media Mirs, Picasso drawings, and a small Calder sculpture, bizarrely

This article is available online at: http://onforb.es/TK82KD

2014 Forbes.com LLC All Rights Reserved

Art Market & Nahmad Family

Art Market & Nahmad Family

Art Market & Nahmad Family