Local attorney helps return Nazi-looted painting to original owner’s family

A famous painting looted by the Nazis is to be returned to its original owner’s family according to a New York Supreme Court ruling April 3. The case to reclaim Amedeo Modigliani’s “Seated Man With a Cane” was brought by Warwick attorney Phillip Landrigan on behalf of the Oscar Stettiner estate. The court ruled that “Oscar Stettiner owned or at a minimum had a superior right of possession of the Painting prior to its unlawful seizure, and he never voluntarily relinquished it.”

The painting has been reported to be worth $25 million.

The ruling says the Stettiner family had been “misled for fifty years (not by Defendants, who had no involvement in this matter until 1996) as to the whereabouts of the seized Painting and there is no evidence they had knowledge of the sale of the Painting to Defendants.”

In an email to the Warwick Advertiser, attorney Landrigan explained the significance if the ruling in the case, as it was rendered shortly before The Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery (HEAR) Act of 2025 was signed into law on April 14. The HEAR Act closed a loophole which enabled courts to dismiss because a family waited too long to file, even if the statute of limitations has expired. The new bill allows families of Holocaust victims to file claims of stolen art regardless of how many years have passed.

The ruling determined “the evidence shows a straightforward and persuasive chain of ownership/right of possession flowing directly from Mr. Stettiner to Nazi seizure to a forced sale.”

Following the ruling, Philippe Maestracci, Stettiner’s sole living heir, will gain ownership of the painting, Landrigan said.