The $400 Million Fortune That No One Gets

When Huguette Clark passed away at the age of 104 this past May, she left behind a few things: a bewildered family, an unknown identity, and an estate worth roughly $400 million. To top it all off, she left it all to her family…and she left nothing to her family.

Huguette as a child

Ms. Huguette Clarke, born on June 9, 1906, in Paris, France, was the daughter of United States Senator William Andrews Clark. Senator Clarke of Montana, who lived from 1839 to 1925, and served one full term as a Democrat from 1901 to 1907, was known as one of the Copper King’s and was always mired in controversy. He was elected to the senate in 1900, but gave up the seat due to a bribery scandal, involving other legislators, and that scandal spawned the 17^th Amendment, which gave the direct election of senators to the people, instead of the legislators that Clarke was bribing. He was dubbed one of the Copper King’s because he made his fortune in copper mining, owning mines in Montana and Arizona, as well as owning numerous banks and newspapers, investing in real estate and other profitable ventures. He was, at the beginning of the 20^th century, either the richest or second-richest man in America, possibly behind only John D. Rockefeller himself.

Senator Clarke shocked the world by announcing, when he was 64, that he had married in secret three years earlier, and had a daughter, Andrée. Ms. Huguette Clarke was born two years later and in 1908, the family moved into a massive 121-room house, located at Fifth Avenue and 77^th Street. Essentially a New York City mansion, the massive residence was filled with the French painting collection of the senator. Already, the young Ms. Clarke lived a secluded, yet wealthy and privileged life. In 1925, Senator Clarke died, and Huguette inherited one-fifth of his massive wealth of $3.6 billion in today’s dollars. Huguette’s one-fifth share was equal to $700 million today. When he mother died in 1963, she inherited almost all that fortune too.

Things began to get weird after that.

The last know photograph of Ms. Huguette Clarke, 

1930

Huguette became a recluse, so much so that the last known photograph of her was taken in 1930. Very little is known of her during this time. She married briefly but had no children. Her only full sister, Andree, died at age 16 and also had no children. So everything became hers and she became more and more shy. Her amassed wealth includes a $100 million oceanfront estate in Santa Barbra, CA; a $20 million country house in CT; three apartments in New York, whose total combined value is estimated at nearly $100 million; priceless paints by such masters as Renoir and Monet and an equally priceless doll collection.

Nearly 20 years ago, she decided to live in various hospital rooms under various fake names, perhaps to find the loneliness she must have felt from nearly a lifetime alone. Just last year, a reporter discovered that her three apartments in New York were empty and she became fodder on the internet and tabloids, as people tried to figure out exactly what made her tick.

Huguette originally had two wills made out, when she was 19 and 22 respectively, that left everything to her mother. Under state law, that means these first two will should leave everything to her current relatives making claims now, nearly 50 of them, all somehow related to Senator Clarke. On March 7, 2005, she hand wrote a new will, leaving $5 million to her long-time nurse, and only those relatives of hers that were related to her father from his first marriage. Then, six weeks later, on April 19, 2005, she wrote a new will, leaving her family nothing. Her nurse now received $34 million. Her attorney and her accountant, who worked on both wills, each received $500,000. Her doctor got $100,000. And finally, a massive amount of money went to charity that is run by both her attorney and accountant.

So the fight begins over this lost fortune as both sides try to figure out what happened in that six week span and try to piece together the mysterious puzzle that was the life of Huguette Clarke.