A court in Rome has rejected the claim of Laure Nechtschein-Modigliani, the granddaughter of the artist Amedeo Modigliani (died 1920), to be “the sole owner of [the] author’s moral rights” for his estate. The court ruled on 4 January that she must pay legal costs of €5,400 to Christian Parisot, the owner of the Rome-based Modigliani Archives Légales. Bernhelm Bonk, a German lawyer who is acting as a mediator, says the court will rule on the moral rights in the next few weeks. In 2012, the Italian lawyer Fabrizio Lemme told The Art Newspaper that Nechtschein-Modigliani had inherited the moral right to authenticate Modigliani's work. Lemme declined to comment on the latest judgment. The estate of the artist is one of the most contested in the art world.
Originally appeared in The Art Newspaper as 'Court rejects Modigliani claim'