Huguette Clark wills Fifth Avenue spread to caretaker, goddaughter


Huguette Clark and 907 Fifth Avenue

Heiress Huguette Clark’s Fifth Avenue apartments now belong to her caretaker of 20 years, Haddassh Peri, and her goddaughter Wanda Styka, according to her long-awaited will, filed with the Surrogate’s Court yesterday, along with the balance of the estate after taxes and bequests.

The two apartments would actually likely fetch “tens of millions of dollars,” Tristan Harper, a senior vice president at Prudential Douglas Elliman, previously told The Real Deal. “It is very hard to say exactly because the condition is obviously an issue, but I was told that she had maids maintaining the apartment three days a week for decades,” he said. 

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More unexpectedly, her estate, valued at around $400 million, will transfer many of the old master works in the 907 Fifth Avenue apartment to her 24-acre Santa Barbara estate, Bellosguardo, which will be transformed into a museum.

The Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. will be receiving one of Monet’s Water Lillies paintings, which has not been on public view since 1925. Beth Israel, where Clark spent the last of her days, receives $1 million, and some money is bound for her medical staff.

Only one of Clark’s marquee properties is currently up for sale — the 12,766-square-foot mansion built on a 52-acre estate in New Canaan, Conn. — for $24 million. [NYO]