Edgar Davids says he discovered that a trusted friend had stolen and pawned dozens of works from his private art collection after an overseas buyer messaged him on Instagram, a court heard. The friend, 38-year-old Nabila Habiby, has pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud relating to the theft and subsequent pawning of the artworks and now faces a possible jail term.
Prosecutors told Wood Green Crown Court that Habiby, who had lived with and been employed by Davids in 2014 and had keys to his home, removed works from a storage unit in north London and presented them to pawn brokers as collateral for loans. The court heard that the former Premier League player had bought the collection from New York's Opera Gallery between 2006 and 2012 and had stored the works when he relocated to a central London apartment in December 2014.
According to evidence presented by prosecutor Mark Seymour, Habiby took 37 pieces to pawn brokers and obtained loans totalling about £31,500. In July 2014, she used two "Burning Man" works by British contemporary artist Paul Insect to secure a £7,000 loan from a broker in Weybridge. When she failed to repay, at least one of those pieces was sold. In a separate transaction in 2016, Habiby used additional works — including Paul Insect pieces and two by American artist Ron English — to secure a further £24,500, the court was told.
Davids only became aware that works were being sold when a buyer in Hong Kong contacted him after finding his name handwritten on the back of a Paul Insect piece. The buyer had searched for the story behind the work and reached out on Instagram, prompting Davids to refer the matter to the Metropolitan Police. Eleven of the paintings have since been recovered; the court was told that about 25 paintings sold by brokers remain untraced.
Seymour told the court that Habiby forged paperwork to present to brokers, including an invoice bearing her name that a gallery later confirmed was a fake. He said the loans were devised with no intention of being repaid and that the inevitable result was a "fire sale" of the art, with 26 of the pieces sold for roughly £70,000 — substantially below the prices Davids had originally paid.
"He had trusted her and she had stolen from him," Seymour said, adding that Davids "had an emotional connection to the paintings" and that some works, notably by Ron English, were unique.
Habiby, who initially denied the allegations when questioned in 2018, told police at that time that she worked as a "freelance consultant" and received financial support from her parents. After being released on bail, she left the United Kingdom for Belgium; authorities later secured her extradition in December 2022 after she spent five months in custody. In a separate matter, the court heard Habiby was convicted in 2018 after a trial of using a friend's bank card to pay almost £3,000 in rent on a Knightsbridge flat. She had denied that offence at trial.
Court papers indicate Davids had previously suspected Habiby of stealing money and a luxury watch while she was staying at his home, allegations she denied and which did not result in criminal charges at the time. Habiby pleaded guilty in the current case to two counts of fraud, covering offences in 2014 and 2016.
At a recent hearing, Judge Alexander Jacobs said Habiby had abused a position of trust and warned that the grant of bail and adjournment for reports did not equate to a promise against immediate custody. "There was an abuse of position, power, trust, and responsibility," he told her. The judge said he would try to avoid sending her to prison where possible but added, "sometimes it is unavoidable," noting the sentence could be as long as 34 months.
Davids, 52, who earned the nickname "The Pitbull" during his playing career for his aggressive style, has not commented publicly in detail on the court proceedings. The Metropolitan Police and legal representatives involved in the prosecution did not immediately respond to requests for further comment.
The theft highlights vulnerabilities faced by private collectors when artworks are placed in storage or placed under the care of others. Galleries and brokers typically rely on provenance and paperwork when accepting items as collateral; in this case, the prosecution said the forged documentation helped enable the loans and subsequent sales. Recovery efforts for the missing pieces are ongoing, and authorities continue to work with buyers and auction houses to trace the unreturned works.