Huguette Marcelle Clark

Washington Post Obituary:

"Huguette Clark, copper heiress and recluse, dies at 104"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/huguette-clark-coppe...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huguette_M._Clark

Huguette Clark From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 (Redirected from Huguette M. Clark) Huguette Clark Huguette-Clark.png Huguette Clark (right) c. 1917 (age approximately 11) with her sister Andrée (left) and her father William A. Clark (center)[1] Born	Huguette Marcelle Clark  June 9, 1906 Paris, France Died	May 24, 2011 (aged 104) New York City, New York, United States Resting place Woodlawn Cemetery The Bronx, New York, United States Residence	New York City, New York, United States Nationality	American Education	Spence School Occupation	Painter Known for	Heiress to Clark copper fortune; recluse Spouse(s)	William MacDonald Gower (1928–1930) Parents	William A. Clark Anna Eugenia La Chapelle Huguette Marcelle Clark (/ˈuːɡɛt/; June 9, 1906 – May 24, 2011) was an heiress and philanthropist, who became well known again late in life as a recluse, living in a hospital for more than 20 years while her mansions remained empty. She was the youngest daughter of United States Senator and industrialist William A. Clark. Upon her death at 104 in 2011, Clark left behind a fortune of more than $300 million, most of which was donated to charity after a court fight with her distant relatives. A feature film of her life is planned, based on the bestselling book Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune.[2]

Biography[edit] Early life[edit] Huguette Clark was born on June 9, 1906 in Paris, France. She was the second daughter of William A. Clark, and his second wife, the former Anna Eugenia La Chapelle (1878–1963). Her father was a former U.S. Senator from Montana and businessman involved in mining and railroads.[3] In addition to her older sister, Louise Amelia Andrée Clark (1902–1919), she had five half siblings from her father's first marriage to Catherine Louise Stauffer:

Mary Joaquina Clark (1870–1939; married Everett Mallory Culver, Charles Potter Kling, and Marius de Brabant) Charles Walker Clark (1871–1933; married Katharine Quin Roberts and Cecelia "Celia" Tobin) Katherine Louise Clark (1875–1974; married Dr. Lewis Rutherford Morris)[4] William Andrews Clark, Jr. (1877–1934; married Mabel Foster and Alice McManus) Francis Paul Clark (1880–1896) She was educated at the Spence School in Manhattan.[5] Following the death of her father in 1925, Clark and her mother moved from a mansion at 962 Fifth Avenue, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York, to a nearby twelfth-floor apartment at 907 Fifth Avenue. She later purchased the entire eighth floor in the building.

Adult life[edit] In 1928, she agreed to donate $50,000 (equivalent to $687,000 in today's dollars[6]) to excavate the salt pond and create an artificial freshwater lake across from Bellosguardo (34.418376°N 119.660664°W), her 23-acre (93,000 m2) estate on the Pacific Coast in Santa Barbara, California. She stipulated that the facility would be named the Andrée Clark Bird Refuge, after her sister, who had died of meningitis.

The daughter of a former staff member described Clark and her mother as not "odd or strange" but rather "quiet, loving, giving ladies". Over the years, she developed a distrust of outsiders, including her family, because she thought they were after her money. She preferred to conduct all of her conversations in French so that others were unlikely to understand the discussion.[7]

She was a musician and an artist who, in 1929, exhibited seven of her paintings at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, located in Washington, D.C. The last photograph of her to be published during her lifetime was taken in 1928, though later photos are published in the book Empty Mansions. She reportedly had a very small group of friends.[8] Her closest friend and former employee, Suzanne Pierre, died of Alzheimer's disease in February 2011.[9]

Marriage[edit] On August 18, 1928, in Santa Barbara, she married law student William MacDonald Gower, a Princeton University graduate who was a son of one of her father's business associates, William Bleakly Gower. The couple separated in 1929 and divorced in Reno, Nevada, on August 12, 1930.

Later years and controversy[edit] In February 2010, she became the subject of a series of reports by NBCNews.com investigative reporter Bill Dedman. Dedman has co-written a book on Huguette Clark and her family, called Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune (ISBN 0345534522), published in September 2013.[10] A film based on the book was announced in 2014 by writer/director Ryan Murphy.[11]

Dedman found that caretakers at her three residences had not seen her in decades, and that her palatial estates in Santa Barbara and New Canaan, Connecticut, had lain empty throughout that time, although the houses and their extensive grounds were meticulously maintained by their staff.[1] He determined in 2010 that she was in the care of a New York City hospital, and that some of her personal possessions had been quietly sold. Some of the possessions sold include a rare 1709 violin called La Pucelle (or The Virgin)[12] made by Antonio Stradivari, and an 1882 Pierre-Auguste Renoir painting entitled In the Roses.[8] When Clark left her Fifth Avenue cooperative apartment in an ambulance in 1988, she was frail and had cancerous lesions on her face. Initially she took up residence at the Upper East Side's Doctor's Hospital to be more comfortable, but was later transferred to Beth Israel Medical Center following the merger of the two hospitals.[13]

In August 2010, the office of the New York County District Attorney (Manhattan) initiated a probe into her affairs managed by her accountant, Irving Kamsler, and her attorney, Wallace Bock.[14] Then a former paralegal for Bock's law firm, Cynthia Garcia, said that Bock received many lavish gifts from Clark, including a $1.5 million gift after the September 11 attacks in 2001, to build a bomb shelter in an Israeli settlement in the West Bank near the homes of his daughters.[15] According to Garcia, Bock tried many times to get Clark to sign a will, including versions that included him as a beneficiary. Bock's spokesperson acknowledged that she had a will.[16] In September 2010, in a one-paragraph ruling, Judge Laura Visitacion-Lewis turned down a request from a grand-half-nephew and two grand-half-nieces – Ian Devine, Carla Hall Friedman and Karine McCall – to appoint an independent guardian to manage Clark's affairs.[17]

Her will was filed on June 22, 2011, in New York Surrogate's Court. The last will and testament was made in 2005 and left seventy-five percent of her estate, about $300 million, to charity. Her longtime nurse, Hadassah Peri, received about $30 million; her goddaughter, Wanda Styka, received about $12 million; and the newly created Bellosguardo Foundation, $8 million.[18] Other employees who managed her residences received smaller sums. Her attorney and accountant each received $500,000. A Claude Monet painting, part of his series of 250 oil paintings known as the Water Lilies (Nymphéas), was bequeathed to the Corcoran Museum of Art;[19] she had purchased the 1907 painting from Galerie Durand-Ruel in 1930.[20][21]

On September 24, 2013, the will was finally settled with the majority of the distant relatives receiving $34 million. The nurse received nothing, and agreed to return $5 million of the earlier $31 million gifts to her and her family. The bulk of the substantial remainder went to the arts, including the gift of her estate in Santa Barbara to a new foundation, called the Bellosguardo Foundation.[22][18] The three apartments where she lived until her hospitalization were sold for more than $55 million. She also owned a 52-acre estate in New Canaan, Connecticut, referred to as Le Beau Chateau.[23]

In October 2011, NBCNews.com reported that an earlier will was signed six weeks before the second will. This earlier will left Clark's estate to her family.[24] In yet another unusual twist, it was reported by NBCNews.com in March 2012 that shortly after Clark moved to a hospital a valuable pastel, Danseuse Faisant des Pointes (Dancer Making Pointes), by Edgar Degas was taken from her Fifth Avenue apartment. The painting was sold to Peter Findlay Gallery and later acquired in 1993 by H&R Block co-founder and art collector Henry W. Bloch. The Peter Findlay Gallery indicated that it acquired the piece from a "European gentleman, seemingly from a good family, who visited New York from time to time" who claimed to have inherited the work. It wasn't until 2005 that the FBI made Bloch aware that it was investigating the painting, and in 2007 it told Bloch that the painting had been reported stolen from Clark.

Under an October 2008 deed of gift, Clark agreed to donate the pastel, valued at $10 million, to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, of which Bloch was a major benefactor. After making the gift, Clark made a request that the pastel be lent three times in 25 years to the Corcoran Museum of Art, that it be listed as from an anonymous donor, and that Clark personally receive a full-sized color photograph of the work. The museum kept the matter confidential acknowledging ownership in a 2012 written exchange with NBCNews.com, which was doing an investigative report on Clark.[25]

Seventeen items of her personal jewel collection were auctioned off at Christie's on April 17, 2012. Buyers paid a total of over $20M for the items, including a rare 9 carat pink diamond by Dreicer & Company that was purchased for over $15.7M, which includes a buyer's premium of 12 percent.[26][27]

Death[edit] She died at Beth Israel Medical Center, in New York City, two weeks short of her 105th birthday. She had been moved a month earlier to an intensive-care unit and later to a room with hospice care. She had been living at Beth Israel under pseudonyms; the latest was Harriet Chase. The room was guarded and she was cared for by part-time private nurses. Her room on the third floor had a card with the fake room number "1B" with the name "Chase" taped over the actual room number. A criminal investigation into the handling of her money was ongoing at the time of her death.[28][29]

She was entombed on the morning of May 26, 2011, in the family mausoleum in section 85 of Woodlawn Cemetery, located in The Bronx borough of New York City, before the cemetery gates were open to the public. Her attorney said she had specific instructions that no funeral service or mass be held. In 2008, Clark's representatives had obtained consent from other Clark family members to alter the mausoleum originally commissioned by her father. It was not until early 2011 that the mausoleum was altered to accommodate her entombment.[30]

References[edit] ^ Jump up to: a b Dedman, Bill (Feb. 26, 2010). "The Clarks: An American Story of Wealth, Scandal and Mystery – A Photo Narrative of Sen. William Andrews Clark and His daughter, Huguette". NBCNews.com. Retrieved January 12, 2012. Jump up ^ http://www.deadline.com/2014/03/empty-mansions-to-get-film-treatment/ Jump up ^ According to records accessed on ancestry.com on May 25, 2011, including the 1890 U.S. Census, Anna Eugenia La Chapelle was born on March 10, 1878, in Calumet, Michigan, a daughter of Peter J. La Chapelle and his wife, Philomène Roche, both of whom were Canadian immigrants. Jump up ^ Katherine Louise Clark at RootsWeb.Ancestry.com Jump up ^ Bill Dedman, Paul Clark Newell, Jr., Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune, New York: Ballantine Books, 2013, pp. 105-108 Jump up ^ Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–2014. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Retrieved February 27, 2014. Jump up ^ Dedman, Bill (September 8, 2010). "At 104, the Mysterious Heiress Huguette Clark Is Now Alone – Relatives Are Kept away – Only Her Accountant and Attorney Visit – Who Protects Huguette Clark, With 3 Empty Homes and No Heirs?". NBCNews.com. Retrieved January 8, 2012. ^ Jump up to: a b Dedman, Bill (September 8, 2010). "Who Is Watching Huguette Clark's Millions? – Reclusive Heiress's Assets Are Sold by Two Advisers, One an Accountant with a Felony Conviction – Another Elderly Client Signed over His Property to the Same Accountant and Attorney". NBCNews.com. Retrieved January 8, 2012. Jump up ^ " at DignityMemorial.com. Retrieved May 24, 2011. Jump up ^ Amazon Jump up ^ http://www.deadline.com/2014/03/empty-mansions-to-get-film-treatment/ Jump up ^ "La Pucelle, Virgin, Maiden No. 212". Retrieved 2012-04-14. Jump up ^ Dedman, Bill (September 8, 2010). "Attorney for 104-Year-Old Heiress Defends His Handling of Her Finances – Huguette Clark's Lawyer Won't Say If He's Named in Her Will, Acknowledges Soliciting Gift of $1.5 Million for His Family's West Bank Community". NBCNews.com. Retrieved January 8, 2012. Jump up ^ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38794432/ns/business-huguette_clark_mys... Jump up ^ Mangan, Dan (August 28, 2010). "104-Year-Old Heiress Gave Lawyer 'Millions' in Gifts". New York Post. Retrieved January 12, 2012. Jump up ^ Dedman, Bill (September 1, 2010). "Generosity of an Heiress: Four Homes for a Nurse, Gifts for Attorney's Family – As the Investigation Continues, a Former Paralegal Describes Efforts To Persuade Huguette Clark To Sign a Will". NBCNews.com. Retrieved January 12, 2012. Jump up ^ Mangan, Dan (September 9, 2010). "Judge Declines To Declare Copper Heiress Incapacitated". New York Post. Retrieved January 12, 2012. ^ Jump up to: a b Gold, Scott (November 3, 2013) "A tangled estate of affairs for Santa Barbara's majestic Bellosguardo." Los Angeles Times Retrieved 5 November 2013 Jump up ^ Dedman, Bill (June 22, 2011). "Heiress Huguette Clark's Will Leaves $1 Million to Advisers – Attorney and Accountant, Under Criminal Investigation, Also Named To Run Art Foundation; Nurse Gets About $30 million; Not a Dime to Relatives". NBCNews.com. Retrieved January 12, 2012. Jump up ^ Trescott, Jacqueline (June 24, 2011). "Huguette M. Clark Bequeaths $25M Monet Painting to Corcoran". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 12, 2012. Jump up ^ Wildenstein, Daniel (1999). Monet – or a Triumph of Impressionism (a Monet catalogue raisonné). Koln, Germany: Taschen. p. 782. ISBN 978-3-8228-8559-8. Jump up ^ 'Heiress Huguette Clark's will settled, with $300 million at stake', USA Today, 24 September 2013. Retrieved 27 September 2013. Jump up ^ "Apartments Owned by Late Heiress Find Buyers". The Wall Street Journal. May 4, 2012. Jump up ^ http://openchannel.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/28/9067033-a-400-mil... Jump up ^ Dedman, Bill (March 14, 2012). "The $10 million Degas ballerina, heiress Huguette Clark and the tax man". NBCNews.com. Retrieved March 17, 2012. Jump up ^ http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/searchresults.aspx?entry=Huguett... retrieved 17 April 2012 Jump up ^ "Christie's Buyer's Premium". Retrieved 2012-04-26. Jump up ^ Dedman, Bill (May 24, 2011). "Huguette Clark, the Reclusive Copper Heiress, Dies at 104 – With Her Mansions Empty, She lived in N.Y. Hospital Rooms for Decades – The Criminal Investigation into Handling of Her Fortune Continues". NBCNews.com. Retrieved January 8, 2012. Jump up ^ "Huguette Clark – Huguette Clark, Who Died on May 24 Aged 104, Was the Reclusive Heiress to an American Copper Fortune, and Although Owner of the Largest Apartment on Fifth Avenue, Spent the Last 20 Years of Her Life in Various New York Hospitals". The Daily Telegraph (London). May 25, 2011. Retrieved January 12, 2012. Jump up ^ Dedman, Bill (May 26, 2011). "Family Excluded from Huguette Clark Burial – No Funeral Mass, No Priest, No Mourners at Tomb of 104-Year-Old Daughter of Copper Tycoon and Senator; She Waited Until Her Second Century To Arrange Room in the Family Mausoleum". NBCNews.com. Retrieved January 12, 2012.

Further reading[edit] NBCNews.com: Huguette Clark, the reclusive heiress, and the men managing her money, an NBCNews.com special report Dedman, Bill; Clark Newell Jr., Paul (2013), Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune, New York: Ballantine Books, ISBN 978-0345534521 Auer, Doug; Italiano, Laura; Mangan, Dan (August 27, 2011). "'Princess' of Beth Israel" New York Post. Retrieved January 12, 2012. Brantingham, Barney (August 26, 2010). "Who's Watching Huguette's Millions? – What Is the Will of Clark Estate Heiress?". Santa Barbara Independent. Retrieved January 12, 2012. Mangam, William (1941). The Clarks – An American Phenomenon. New York City, New York: Silver Bow Press. OCLC 390214. "Huguette Clark's Lawyer Fires Back at Relatives Who Want Him Ousted". Daily News. September 7, 2010. "Lawyer for Reclusive 104-Year-Old Heiress Huguette Clark Defends Handling of Her Fortune", Daily News, August 27, 2010. Gray, Christopher (June 2, 2011) "Huguette Clark’s ‘Worthless’ Girlhood Home" New York Times. Retrieved June 27, 2012.