When I was browsing through Amazon on what to read next, I saw a book entitled “Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune" by Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Jr. Newell”. Here was the book's description -When Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bill Dedman noticed in 2009 a grand home for sale, unoccupied for nearly sixty years, he stumbled through a surprising portal into American history. Empty Mansions is a rich mystery of wealth and loss, connecting the Gilded Age opulence of the nineteenth century with a twenty-first-century battle over a $300 million inheritance. At its heart is a reclusive heiress named Huguette Clark, a woman so secretive that, at the time of her death at age 104, no new photograph of her had been seen in decades. Though she owned palatial homes in California, New York, and Connecticut, why had she lived for twenty years in a simple hospital room, despite being in excellent health? Why were her valuables being sold off? Was she in control of her fortune, or controlled by those managing her money?
Intriguing, right? The book has as an average of 4.5 stars by more than 2k Amazon readers so it must be really good. In short, I bought the book. Haha....
While reading the book, I couldn't get over the fact that it's a real story because it has the elements of a highly engaging movie plot. The sense of mystery will tickle your mind. For example, the strict order of the owner of the mansions is to keep all the mansions in pristine condition and yet, the owner has never set foot in them for 50 years...even 60 years. The caretakers have never even met the owner and just got paid via checks through a lawyer for decades.
What made the story even more engaging is it's hard to predict what will happen next because it's difficult to read through the motivations of the characters. I got hooked! Haha...
But first things first - who is Huguette Clark and why is her family wealthy?
Huguette (pronounced as Oo-get) is one of the daughters of America’s top 2 richest man in the 1900s (next to John D. Rockefeller) and also, a former US Senator. Her dad’s name is William Andrews Clark (aka W.A. Clark) who got rich from the copper mines of Montana and Arizona at the height of the demand for copper with all the 19th century inventions like the telegraph cable, telephone, lightbulb, bullet, etc. which all needed copper.
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| Bellosguardo (meaning "beautiful lookout") in Sta. Barbara. Huguette Clark has never set foot in this mansion for at least 50 years. But it was immaculately-kept. Her 1930s sedans are still well-maintained in the garage and the table is set just in case the owner visits. Source |
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| Le Beau Chateau in Connecticut. This was unoccupied since Huguette bought it in 1951 (empty for 60 years!). Source |
What made the story even more engaging is it's hard to predict what will happen next because it's difficult to read through the motivations of the characters. I got hooked! Haha...
But first things first - who is Huguette Clark and why is her family wealthy?
Huguette (pronounced as Oo-get) is one of the daughters of America’s top 2 richest man in the 1900s (next to John D. Rockefeller) and also, a former US Senator. Her dad’s name is William Andrews Clark (aka W.A. Clark) who got rich from the copper mines of Montana and Arizona at the height of the demand for copper with all the 19th century inventions like the telegraph cable, telephone, lightbulb, bullet, etc. which all needed copper.
You could also say that W.A. Clark founded Las Vegas. His company needed a maintenance point for switching railcars and storing water and fuel in the Nevada desert and so his men found a ranch there, an abandoned Mormon missionary camp. W.A. Clark saw an opportunity to profit. In 1905, he subdivided 110 acres to create a small town of 1,200 lots. People came from Los Angeles on a special Clark train for the auction. Bidders paid as little as $100 for residential lots and as much as $1,750 for the corner commercial lots on the main street, called Fremont. At the end of the second day, W.A.’s auction company had sold half of his properties, pocketing more than $250,000. The missionary camp became Los Vegas Rancho. Clark called the new town Clark’s Las Vegas Townsite but everyone else dropped the Clark name, calling it Las Vegas.
When W. A. Clark died in 1925, he left an estate estimated at $100 million to $250 million (worth up to $3.4 billion today). One-fifth of the estate went to 18-year-old Huguette (Huguette is 1 of 2 daughters from W.A. Clark's second marriage; there were 4 children in W. A. Clark's first marriage). But after W.A. Clark's death, his businesses were sold, and the Clark name faded.
Going back to Huguette, she was an American but she was born in Paris on June 9, 1906. Huguette, her mom and her older sister who were all based in Paris moved to New York in 1910. She grew up in a mansion at the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and Seventy-Seventh Street, prominently located in the middle of New York’s Millionaires’ Row where the Vanderbilt, Astor and Carnegie lived. It was a 121-room mansion (the mansion in the book's cover).
In 1928, after the photo below of Huguette was taken days after her wedding, no other public photo of her came out in the next 8 decades.
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| Last published photo of Huguette Clark taken in 1928. |
Incidentally, within 9 months of being married to his childhood friend, the couple split. But Huguette and the ex-husband remained good friends for life. Some of their letters are printed in the book and they are one of the most beautiful letters I've ever read.
So what happened to Huguette between 1928 and 2011? She chose to quietly pursue her passions. She chose to live privately.
She valued her privacy so much that when her jewels (including a blue diamond) safe-kept in a bank vault were declared lost by the bank, or when a Degas painting worth USD10M was stolen from her New York home in the 1990s, she couldn't sue, report to the police or file for insurance claims because the investigation will expose her identity and generate publicity. She valued her privacy more than money.
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| Dancer Making Points by Edgar Degas (painted between 1879 and 1880) USD10M painting stolen from Huguette's New York home. Source |
But what triggered the sudden interest about Huguette after 80+ years?
In May 2011, two weeks before Huguette's 105th birthday, Huguette passed away. She signed 2 wills which had contradicting instructions. Both wills were signed in 2005 when she was almost 99 years old.
The first will named her nurse and her closest living relatives as the heirs. The second will named her nurse, god-daughter, doctor, hospital, lawyer, accountant, and a new arts foundation as the heirs and nothing was left to the relatives. Her relatives from her father's first marriage challenged her last will saying that Huguette was a victim of fraud, that she was mentally ill, and unable to understand what she had signed.
The first will named her nurse and her closest living relatives as the heirs. The second will named her nurse, god-daughter, doctor, hospital, lawyer, accountant, and a new arts foundation as the heirs and nothing was left to the relatives. Her relatives from her father's first marriage challenged her last will saying that Huguette was a victim of fraud, that she was mentally ill, and unable to understand what she had signed.
Here are some interesting things mentioned in the book about the people around Huguette in her later years:
- Her private nurse received over USD30M worth of gifts from Huguette while she was alive. Huguette paid for the education of all the nurse's kids from pre-school to post-graduate and including their piano lessons, violin lessons, summer camps, etc. Huguette also bought the nurse's family a total of 6 homes in prime spots around New York. The family was even able to buy several luxury vehicles, not just any luxury vehicle, but including a limited edition Bentley - an Arnage Le Mans - one of only 150 in the world, for which they paid $210,000 in cash. Whoa....
- Her doctors and hospital nurses received millions in checks for more than a decade even if it was against the hospital policy to receive gifts from patients.
- Her private nurse received over USD30M worth of gifts from Huguette while she was alive. Huguette paid for the education of all the nurse's kids from pre-school to post-graduate and including their piano lessons, violin lessons, summer camps, etc. Huguette also bought the nurse's family a total of 6 homes in prime spots around New York. The family was even able to buy several luxury vehicles, not just any luxury vehicle, but including a limited edition Bentley - an Arnage Le Mans - one of only 150 in the world, for which they paid $210,000 in cash. Whoa....
- Her doctors and hospital nurses received millions in checks for more than a decade even if it was against the hospital policy to receive gifts from patients.
When people around Huguette were asked if they thought it was inappropriate to receive gifts from Huguette, their common answer was they didn't think so because it was Huguette who insisted out of generosity. But the weird thing is some of them had letters to Huguette explicitly asking for money or subtly describing a situation where the underlying message is they need money, or a car, or a house! Wahaha... For me, since you know the person would write you a check when she finds out you've a financial problem, then if you sincerely don't want her to act on your situation (especially if you think she has given you so much already), then just stop talking about your financial issues with her. Just saying... :)
Anyway, as the relatives investigated, they also found out that Huguette's accountant was a felon, and that the accountant and Huguette's lawyer failed to file Huguette's gift taxes for several years. And because of this, the taxes plus accumulated interest over the years reached a staggering USD82M! :(
At least 26 lawyers worked on the investigation and after 3 years (and before the trial began), a settlement was reached. Clark relatives received USD34.5M. The private nurse renounced her bequest and agreed to pay back USD5M in gifts but she kept the remaining USD26M. The accountant and lawyer gave up their bequests and executor fees but their malpractice claims were dismissed. The lawyers who worked on the investigation got USD30M (wow, it's close what the relatives actualy got!). One-third or about USD104M went to pay gift taxes, interest and estate taxes. Other beneficiaries like Huguette's god-daughter got their bequests. The hospital and doctor also got their bequests but the bad news is they were also sued for hiding Huguette to extract rent and donations. Remember Huguette opted to stay in the hospital for more than a decade even if she didn't have any serious medical condition? Apparently, Huguette's name was left off the daily patient census and the staff were told to hide her file when inspectors came.
But after all everything, regardless of how the people around Huguette behaved (whether with malice or none), Huguette's generosity was sincere and she lived a happy, fulfilling quiet life.
Even when she was pushing 100 years old, she was still busy pursuing her passions. She had an assistant whom she would ask to bring what she needed for the day's project like working on a miniature Kabuki theatre (she had a deep fascination for Japanese history, arts and culture). She played the violin. She kept in touch (via letters and phone) with her closest god-daughter, friends and employees including their family members up to grandchildren and never failed to send gifts during special occasions. She learned how to play chess (in her eighties!). She actively monitored auctions and participated in them through her lawyers. She read the classics, she read French magazines and newspapers... she enjoyed reading news about royalty... and she even loved watching the Smurfs! :)
People around her said she had a sharp memory. At age 93, she still clearly remembered vivid details of her trip to Hawaii in 1915 like the name of trees she saw, the hotels where they stayed in, the Olympic champion Kahanamoku who taught them how to surf. Those are memories from 80 years ago! I can't even remember the details of my Hawaii trip 3 years ago! Wahaha....
When she was 98 years old, Huguette recited a poem to her doctor entitled “Le Grillon” (The Cricket or sometimes called True Happiness), an old French fable which her sister used to read to her when they were kids. Huguette knew it by heart!
When she was 98 years old, Huguette recited a poem to her doctor entitled “Le Grillon” (The Cricket or sometimes called True Happiness), an old French fable which her sister used to read to her when they were kids. Huguette knew it by heart!
I am sharing the entire poem here because it speaks a lot about Huguette's choice of a private life and also, it's a beautiful poem.
THE CRICKET
by Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian
A poor little cricket hidden in the flowery grass observes a butterfly
Fluttering in the meadow, the winged insect shines with the liveliest colors:
Azure, purple, and gold glitter on his wings;
Young, handsome, foppish, he hastens from flower to flower taking from the best ones.
Ah! says the cricket, how his lot and mine are dissimilar!
Lady Nature for him did everything, and for me nothing.
I have no talent, even less beauty;
No one takes notice of me, they know me not here below;
Might as well not exist.
As he was speaking, in the meadow arrives a troop of children.
Immediately they are running after this butterfly, for which they all have a longing.
Hats, handkerchiefs, caps serve to catch him.
The insect in vain tries to escape.
He becomes soon their conquest.
One seizes him by the wing, another by the body;
A third arrives, and takes him by the head.
It should not be so much effort to tear to pieces the poor creature.
Oh! Oh! says the cricket, I am no more sorry;
It costs too dear to shine in this world.
How much I am going to love my deep retreat!
To live happily, live hidden.
She recited this poem from memory - not just once but 3 times! In English, in Spanish and in French! Wow! (And I can't even recite Bahay Kubo! Wahaha...)
What a beautiful, quiet life...Huguette lived happily, lived hidden like the cricket. :)
