Empty Mansions (56 page)
Authors: Bill Dedman
Huguette lost this $10 million Degas ballerina, which was stolen from her apartment while she was in the hospital and turned up on the wall of a noted collector. She refused to sue to get it back, because the publicity would threaten her privacy.
She sold this Stradivarius violin for $6 million so that she could give more gifts.
In 1955, she had bought the violin, known as “La Pucelle” (meaning “the virgin”), but she preferred to play a lesser Strad.
(
illustration credit ins.32
)
After Huguette died, her jewelry fetched $18 million at auction. This Art Deco diamond and gem charm bracelet by Cartier from about 1925, with themes of love, sold for $75,000
. (
illustration credit ins.33
)
Her pair of emerald, natural pearl, and diamond ear pendants, by Cartier, from the early twentieth century, sold for $85,000
. (
illustration credit ins.34
)
Her Art Deco diamond bracelet, by Cartier, circa 1925, sold for $480,000
. (
illustration credit ins.35
)
Her Art Deco emerald and diamond bracelet, by Cartier, circa 1925, sold for $90,000.
(
illustration credit ins.36
)
The view Huguette abandoned when she moved to a hospital from her apartment building at 907 Fifth Avenue, including the sailboat pond in Central Park in the foreground.
(
illustration credit ins.37
)
The view from Huguette’s last regular hospital room at Beth Israel Medical Center. From her window in room 3K01, one can see no sky at all, only the facing wall of another wing of the hospital, and the air-conditioning units.
(
illustration credit ins.38
)
FOR HUGUETTE.
P.N. and B.D.
M
ANY PEOPLE CONTRIBUTED
to the Clark story, and we thank them for their extraordinary generosity.
Michael V. Carlisle of Inkwell Management was as helpful and encouraging as any agent could be, assisted by Lauren Smythe and Nathaniel Jacks.
Pamela Cannon, executive editor at Ballantine Books, reached out to encourage our plans to write about the Clarks, and edited this text with patience and good judgment. Anna Bauer designed the jacket. Others at Random House Publishing Group who helped get this book into your hands include Richard Callison, Susan Corcoran, Benjamin Dreyer, Toby Louisa Ernst, Michelle Jasmine, Barbara Jatkola, Ratna Kamath, Mark LaFlaur, Carole Lowenstein, Mark Maguire, Libby McGuire, Allison Merrill, Cindy Murray, Grant Neumann, Beth Pearson, Paolo Pepe, Quinne Rogers, Evan Stone, Simon M. Sullivan, Jennifer Tung, Betsy Wilson, Maralee Youngs, and Amelia Zalcman.
Paul Newell
I
N MEMORY
of Clark relatives no longer with us, I acknowledge important contributions by my cousins Mary Abascal, Anita Mackenzie, and their mother, Elizabeth Clark Abascal, as well as Anita’s son, Sandy Mackenzie, all of whom knew and remembered well W. A. Clark, Anna Clark, and Huguette Clark. I appreciate these cousins for their personal recollections and for their sharing of archival photos, letters, and other documents.
I’m grateful especially to my dear father, Paul Clark Newell, who admired his famous uncle, wrote about him, and conserved the large accumulation of photographs and letters left by my grandmother Ella, who was W.A.’s youngest sister and who was caregiver to their mother in the years approaching her centennial birthday. My appreciation also
to Agnes Clark Albert, whom I interviewed by phone in April 2000, at a time when she was the last surviving grandchild of Senator Clark.
Finally, I express my fond memories of my cousin Huguette Clark, with whom I was privileged to become acquainted as she entered her ninetieth year and with whom I often communicated by telephone and written correspondence. She was generous in sharing family photos and personal reminiscences of her father, her dear departed sister, Andrée, and her mother, Anna, who was her closest companion during Anna’s long life.
Among living Clark cousins and their spouses, I thank a number of them for their kindness in sharing bits of family history and genealogical information, including André Baeyens, John Michael Clark, Lorilott Clark, Carla Hall Friedman, Erika Hall, Lewis and Gemma Hall, Margie Henry, Edie MacGuire, Helen Murray Miller, and particularly Beverly McCord, who created a Clark family tree at the dawn of the twenty-first century, a prototype that has been amended in the years following to confirm accuracy and to add the most recent generations. I thank my sister, Eve Newell, for many, many hours devoted to this genealogical mission, and her husband, Ron Forsey, for his implementation electronically of an updated family tree and for scanning and storing many documents and photo images, some of which grace the pages of this book.
Among institutions, I received invaluable help from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, with special thanks to Dare Myers Hartwell, conservator, and Marisa Bourgoin, formerly the archivist at that institution; and from the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library at the University of California, Los Angeles, with my gratitude for office space and archival storage made available to me. Much appreciation to the librarians and other staff at the Clark, and particularly to Suzanne Tatian, who provided me with useful counsel and assistance over the past eighteen years.
I received courteous and useful assistance from many other libraries and historical societies, including the Connellsville Area Historical Society in Pennsylvania; Thelma Shaw, Nora Meier, and Nancy Silliman at the Kohrs Memorial Library in Deer Lodge, Montana; the Montana Historical Society Research Center in Helena; Ellen Crain at the Butte–Silver Bow Public Archives in Butte; the World Museum of Mining in Butte; and the Jerome Historical Society in Arizona.
With gratitude for the support and encouragement received from my loving family, including parents with me in spirit, siblings, and wonderful progeny.
And with special admiration for my co-author, Bill Dedman, Pulitzer Prize winner, for his knack of putting a friendly face on history and for his uncommon prolificacy, born of years of delivering impressive copy in the face of inflexible deadlines.