Helly Nahmad (born circa 1978) is an American art dealer and art collector. In 2000, he founded the Helly Nahmad Gallery in Manhattan, New York, which holds several fine art exhibitions each year featuring artists such as Pablo Picasso, Chaïm Soutine, Francis Bacon, and Giorgio de Chirico. In 2014, he was sentenced to 12 months in prison (and served four) after pleading guilty to a federal charge, "operating an illegal gambling business". In 2021, he was pardoned by President Donald Trump. In 2018, Nahmad bought Picasso's Young Girl with a Flower Basket painting for $115 million. The painting will go on loan to Musée d'Orsay in Paris. Early life and education Hillel "Helly" Nahmad was born circa 1978. The son of art dealer David Nahmad, his extended family had developed a reputation as art collectors and dealers "predominantly in 19th- and 20th-century art" out of countries such as Italy and Monaco. Nahmad spent his childhood in Manhattan, New York and at a young age would shadow his father to fine art galleries, auctions, and museums. His father recollects that Nahmad was "scoping out antiques at Sotheby’s auctions" by five years of age, developing a fascination with artists such as Claude Monet by the age of twelve. His younger brother, Joe, would also go on to be active in art. Nahmad interned in the Jewish Museum in the summers and attended the private Dalton School in New York's Upper East Side. According to a former school official, he was expelled in his senior year for "unclear" reasons. Nahmad has refuted this retelling and states he missed school while traveling and turned down an opportunity to repeat his senior year. He graduated from Beekman High School Manhattan. He attended part of an art course at Christie's in 1997. Career 2000-2012 In 2000, he purchased the Davlyn Gallery and changed the name to the Helly Nahmad Gallery. The gallery since the 1990s has been located in the Carlyle Hotel on Madison Avenue in Manhattan. Nahmad’s gallery would go on to host several fine art exhibitions at the gallery per year, starting with the Sounds of Colours exhibition in 2004, which displayed the works of Wassily Kandinsky. The following year the gallery held two major exhibitions, a retrospective on Fernand Léger and a celebration of the work of Amedeo Modigliani. In 2006 and 2007, his gallery held both a Max Ernst and a Pablo