When told the anecdote of an American collector from the Midwest who bought Impressionist paintings because he found them “pretty,” the reaction of David Nahmad – usually an affable man – was immediate: “When I hear someone say that, I stand up and leave! Paintings are not ‘pretty,’ they are not meant to be. You have to make the effort to read them, to understand them. They are sources of knowledge!”
His knowledge is encyclopedic. This is not only because, with his family – his two brothers, Joseph (known as “Joe”) and Ezra, now deceased, collected with him – he owns several thousand artworks by masters, both major and minor, of the 19th and 20th centuries. But also because he knows everything about them: the circumstances under which the artist painted them; their provenance; their purchase prices (not just the price he paid, but also those from previous sales); and, in the case of a public sale, often who the underbidder was.
A former world backgammon champion, at 78, he still possesses a phenomenal memory, an essential asset in this game. He could remember the title of the very first in-depth article dedicated to the brothers, in 1995, by the monthly Beaux-Arts Magazine. It revealed to the general public the consuming passion of a trio of collectors and dealers who had remained very discreet until then: “Taking Control of the Art Market.” Indeed, during one of the worst crises the art world has known, between 1990 and 1996, they were practically the only buyers at major auctions, acquiring significant works at relatively moderate prices.
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