Giuseppe Nahmad
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Giuseppe (“Joe”) Nahmad (1932 – 23 November 2012) was an
art dealer An art dealer is a person or company that buys and sells works of art, or acts as the intermediary between the buyers and sellers of art. An art dealer in contemporary art typically seeks out various artists to represent, and builds relationsh ...
who specialized in
Impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...
,
Post-Impressionist Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction a ...
, and
modern art Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the tradit ...
. He amassed a multi-billion fortune in buying, selling, and collecting works of arts of 19th- and 20th-century artists.Wullschlager, Jackie (November 11, 2011)
"Lunch with the FT: Helly Nahmad"
''Financial Times''. Retrieved January 2, 2013.


Family

Giuseppe Nahmad was born in 1932 in
Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...
, Syria. His father Hillel Nahmad was a banker who founded Nahmad & Beyda in
Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...
. The Nahmads were
Sephardic Jews Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...
who spoke French, Arabic and several other languages. Hillel Nahmad opened a branch of Nahmad & Beyda in Beirut, Lebanon, after he and his wife, Mathilde Nahmad, moved there in 1948. They had eight children: four boys (Albert, Giuseppe,
Ezra Ezra ( fl. fifth or fourth century BCE) is the main character of the Book of Ezra. According to the Hebrew Bible, he was an important Jewish scribe (''sofer'') and priest (''kohen'') in the early Second Temple period. In the Greek Septuagint, t ...
,
David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...
) and four girls (Denise Nahmad Amon, Jacqueline Nahmad Harari, Nadia Nahmad Chowaiki, Evelyn Nahmad Matalan). In 1958, Albert, having expanded the family banking business to Rio de Janeiro, died in an airplane crash. In 1957, Giuseppe Nahmad settled in Milan where he started his art dealership. Two years later his parents and his younger siblings resettled in Milan. Giuseppe's younger brothers, David and Ezra, joined the enterprise while still being teenagers in 1963. David and Ezra's own sons, both named Hillel, run galleries in New York and London currently.Adams, Susan (December 24, 2007)
"The Art of the Deal"
''Forbes''. Retrieved January 2, 2013.
Giuseppe Nahmad never married and had no children.


Career

Nahmad discovered
Lucio Fontana Lucio Fontana (; 19 February 1899 – 7 September 1968) was an Italian Argentines, Argentine-Italian painter, sculptor, and theorist. He is known as the founder of Spatialism and exponent of Abstract art, abstract painting as the f ...
and commissioned paintings by
Wifredo Lam Wifredo Óscar de la Concepción Lam y Castilla (; December 8, 1902 – September 11, 1982), better known as Wifredo Lam, was a Cuban artist who sought to portray and revive the enduring Afro-Cubans, Afro-Cuban spirit and culture. Inspired by ...
. When prices were especially low in Paris and, for Nahmad, resale margins in Milan ranged from 50% to 100%. Nahmad and his brothers bought
Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...
's 1955 portrait of his second wife Jacqueline in 1995 for $2.6 million. They held it for twelve years and sold it for $30.8 million. In the 1970s, Nahmad bought several Picassos at prices from $40,000 to $50,000 apiece. In the 1980s, Nahmad moved into the Japan market and continued buying art through 1989 downturn. During this period Ezra and David Nahmad opened galleries in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
and
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
.


Controversy and media coverage

In December 2007, an article in ''
Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...
'' quoted allegations that the younger Nahmad brothers habitually changed the terms of their deals at the last minute. David Nahmad denied the allegations. The same ''Forbes'' article credited the Nahmads with stabilizing the auction business by buying art in bulk even during – or especially during – market downturns."They are like a major brokerage firm in the stock market; the market needs a force like this to function," said New York dealer Jeffrey Deitch. In 2011, part of the Nahmad collection was first shown at the
Kunsthaus Zürich The Kunsthaus Zürich is an art museum in Zurich. It is the biggest art museum in Switzerland by area and houses one of the most important art collections in Switzerland, assembled over time by the Zürcher Kunstgesellschaft, a nonprofit art soc ...
. The exhibit generated some controversy as the museum was criticized for purportedly catering to the family's broader business interests.Brechbühl, Regula (October 13, 2011)
"The Nahmad Collection: "An exciting experiment""
. Credit Suisse. Retrieved January 2, 2013.


Death

Giuseppe Nahmad died in
Monte Carlo Monte Carlo ( ; ; or colloquially ; , ; ) is an official administrative area of Monaco, specifically the Ward (country subdivision), ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is located. Informally, the name also refers to ...
on 23 November 2012. He was buried on 26 November 2012 in Jerusalem, next to his parents and near his brother Albert. Most of his surviving siblings, and nearly all his nieces and nephews attended, though word of the patriarch's death was not released to the media.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nahmad, Giuseppe 1932 births 2012 deaths Italian art dealers Syrian art dealers Syrian Jews Syrian expatriates in Monaco Lebanese Jews Italian art collectors Syrian art collectors Italian expatriates in Monaco Italian people of Syrian-Jewish descent Lebanese people of Syrian-Jewish descent
Giuseppe Giuseppe is the Italian form of the given name Joseph, from Latin Josephus, Iōsēphus from Ancient Greek Ἰωσήφ (Iōsḗph), from Hebrew יוסף. The feminine form of the name is Giuseppa or Giuseppina (given name), Giuseppina. People wit ...
Syrian billionaires Asian Sephardi Jews European Sephardi Jews