history Following her 1930 Reno divorce, the heiress — who had shown promise as a painter — slipped from public view, dividing her time between Fifth Avenue in Manhattan and Bellosguardo in Santa Barbara. After her mother died in 1963, Huguette Clark forsook Santa Barbara permanently, although Bellosguardo is still lovingly maintained at her behest. Seeking a potential refuge from World War III, she purchased a mansion in Connecticut in which she never set foot. Utterly reclusive, Huguette Clark turned her energies to maintaining “Mommy’s” two-story, 42-room apartments, collecting and playing with her dolls (one of which was flown from France as a first-class passenger), having complete episodes of “The Flintstones” transcribed, and subsisting on sardines, bananas and ice cream. She communicated with her antiques dealer and an attorney only through a closed door. Pi l l agers or protectors? Such eccentricities would hardly generate headlines on MSNBC.com — whose Dedman is now co-writing a book on the con-
Utterly reclusive, Huguette Clark spent time with her dolls, and subsisted on sardines, bananas and ice cream. voluted Clark saga, “Empty Mansions” — or coverage by NBC’s “Today” were it not for the vast wealth nominally under Huguette’s control. The quiet disposition of $29 million in assets during the past decade began to raise questions about the management of her fortune by Bock and Kamsler. For instance, Bock solicited a $1.5 million donation to a West Bank settlement from his client, flying in the face of New York State legal ethics. When a Stradivarius violin changed hands, as did a Renoir painting, it appeared that the cat was well and truly among the pigeons, sending Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.’s office into action. Bock and Kamsler remain under investigation by the Manhattan D.A.’s Elder Abuse unit. But the W.A. Clark descendants lack of proof of their alleged manipulations — acts that would be
difficult to substantiate, since Clark ceased communicating with her relatives in 2005, at the time her will was signed. Mme. Clark hadn’t been dead a week before the New York Times reported that “many eyes have zeroed in on the sumptuous suite of apartments,” with real estate agents jostling for a piece of the action. (Other residents of the building include Martha Stewart.) The vast Fifth Avenue spaces are expected to bring $55 million total, but most of that money is already pledged against estate taxes. Clark’s Connecticut castle-cumbomb-shelter has long been on the market and is currently listing for $20 million, steeply discounted from $34 million. While it was a Clark clan real estate sale that birthed Las Vegas, the fruits of that transaction have created a saga worthy of Hollywood.
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