Elie Nadelman (born Eliasz Nadelman; February 20, 1882 – December 28, 1946) was a Polish-American sculptor, draughtsman of the School of Paris and a collector of folk art. <!--Establishes place of death. Emphasizes Nadelman's role in building the Museum of Folk Arts; the collection was housed from 1926 to 1937 in a purpose-built museum in Riverdale, then purchased by the New York Historical Society. Says death was after "a long illness", which conflicts with the usual statement that he died a suicide.-->
thumb|200px|Horse, , [[National Gallery of Art]]
Early years
thumb|right|150px|Elie Nadelman, Standing Nude, , gilded bronze, [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]]
Nadelman was born into a Jewish family in Warsaw in 1882. Nadelman's work in this early period (1905–1912) was of crucial importance for early 20th-century modern sculpture.
He moved to the United States (becoming an American citizen in 1927) during the outbreak of World War I. He married Mrs. Viola Flannery, a wealthy heiress, in 1920. He and his wife assembled a large collection of folk art and erected a Museum of Folk Arts in Riverdale, N.Y. in 1925.
Eventually, as his wealth vanished in the Depression and his work failed to interest the art world, he became more peripheral to the collectors of Modernism. He did not take commissions other than portraits. In 1937 the collection of the Museum of Folk Arts was sold to the New York Historical Society.