Law & Politics
Florida Socialite Tries to Have Art Dealing Nahmads Thrown in Jail
She accused her art dealing husband of hiding artworks by Picasso and Matisse.
The powerful art-dealing Nahmad family is threatened with jail time in a legal complaint that’s part of a thorny divorce between a Florida socialite and another art dealer.
Gina DiSabatino and French-born New York art dealer Frederic Bouin have been in an ugly divorce proceeding since 2014, and now she wants to bring members of the Nahmad family into the scrum.
DiSabatino has accused Bouin of hiding artworks by masters like Henri Matisse, Claude Monet, and Pablo Picasso from her in divorce negotiations. She claims that David and Joe Nahmad were no-shows at court-ordered depositions where they were to answer questions about art deals with Bouin, reports the New York Post. DiSabatino has similarly targeted New York real-estate dealer Jana Bullock, saying she refused to show up for depositions.
DiSabatino is calling for a Manhattan judge to throw the Nahmads into jail for up to 30 days.
“This is relevant, material and necessary information that is essential to [Disabatino] learning what the marital assets are so that she can seek fair distribution,” she says in court papers, reports the Post.
The lawyer for the Nahmads, uber-art attorney Aaron Richard Golub, tells the Post that DiSabatino’s move is “nothing more than actionable harassment.”
“This is simply a case of the wife issuing subpoeanas to all of the husband’s associates, neighbors, first, second, and third cousins, everyone under the sun,” Golub told artnet News by phone.
Bouin pleaded no contest to DiSabatino’s charges of harassment in 2009, according to the Daily Local News of West Chester, Pennsylvania. She accused him of verbal and physical threats made at their home in New Garden, Pennsylvania. Bouin, according to the Daily Local News, was slapped with a fine and probation, though he did not admit to the accusations.
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