- Photo by Jeff Hester
Huguette Clark, heiress to a large copper fortune, passed away last year, leaving an estate worth about $400 million. She left generous gifts to charity and to two of her nurses, but now questions of her mental capacity have been raised.
Her father, former U.S. Senator William Clark, made his fortune in mining and railroads.
When Huguette died she left approximately $28 million of her inheritance to one of her nurses in the form of three apartments and a Stradivarius violin. Another nurse received enough money to pay for her children’s education and two apartments.
Ethel Griffin, a public administrator, now says that $37 million of Huegette’s gifts may need to be returned, along with a Manet painting worth $6 million, which she left to a hospital where she lived.
According to Forbes, the issue of whether she possessed the requisite mental capacity to make the gifts, and whether those advising her were acting purely on her behalf. Her last will and testament leaves the bulk of her fortune to charity with $28 million to her nurse. However, she had signed a will six weeks earlier leaving her estate mostly to her great-nephews and great-nieces. Those family members are now challenging the will, and the matter will be decided in court.
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