Melva Bucksbaum was one of the leading collectors of visual art in the United States and sat on the board of the Whitney Museum of American Art. When she died, her estate was worth an estimated $200 million with half that total coming from her extensive collection of art that was amassed using the fortune of her late first husband, a well known shopping mall developer. In her will, she left her second husband nearly $40 million worth of cash and property but that is apparently not enough for him as he has filed suit in Aspen, Colorado seeking half of her estate. This suit is being challenged by Mrs. Bucksmaum’s children from her first marriage who has retained a well known New York attorney to fight the case who referred to the lawsuit as “a clear case of greed.” No word yet on when a trial is set to begin.
See Emily Smith, The battle over Melva Bucksbaum’s $100M estate, Page Six, January 26, 2016.
Special thanks to Jim Hartnett for bringing this article to my attention.
