Huguette Marcelle Clark was the youngest daughter of famous and very successful American politician and entrepreneur, William A. Clark, who made his fortune from mining, railroads and banking. Huguette died a couple of moths ago (in May) at age 104, and in her last will she decided to leave nothing to her relatives, most of her fortune going to art charity.
The last decades of Miss Clark’s life were spent in New York City’s Beth Israel Hospital, being well taken care of by her personal nurse, Hadassah Peri. Mrs. Peri received a lot of gifts from Clark including a guest house in Brooklyn near her own, a holiday residence in New Jersey and two flats near Park Avenue for her children (Clark was childless). After the reclusive heiress’ heath, the nurse also received an inheritance of $38 million, plus an expensive collection of dolls and dollhouses, probably worth millions.
Clark also left $14 million to a goddaughter of hers. The bulk of her wealth however went to art charity: $400 million. The Corcoran Gallery of Art received a painting from Claude Monet’s Water Lilies series, but the rest of her art collection will remain at Bellosguardo, together with her Stradivarius and collection of rare books.
