Huguette Clark, American heiress, painter, and philanthropist (b. 1906)
Huguette Marcelle Clark (June 9, 1906 – May 24, 2011) was an American painter, heiress, and philanthropist, who became well known again late in life as a recluse, living in hospitals for more than 20 years while her various mansions remained unoccupied.
The youngest daughter of Montana senator and industrialist William A. Clark, she spent her early life in Paris before relocating with her family to New York City, where she was educated at the Spence School. After a short-lived marriage ended in 1930, Clark returned to her residence at 907 Fifth Avenue, a large twelfth-floor apartment that she significantly expanded to occupying two floors. She also meticulously maintained Bellosguardo, a large familial estate in Santa Barbara, California, although she never returned to the property after the 1950s.
Clark spent much of her life outside of the public sphere, devoting her time to painting, the arts, and collecting various antiquities, primarily toys and dolls. In 1952, she purchased another property in New Canaan, Connecticut, but following the death of her mother in 1963, became increasingly reclusive.
In 1991, she was admitted to Doctors Hospital in Manhattan to treat various basal cell cancer lesions on her face. Though she successfully recovered, Clark remained a hospital resident for the following two decades.
Upon her death at 104 in 2011, Clark left behind a fortune of more than $300 million, most of which was donated to charity after a court dispute with her distant relatives. The events surrounding her estate and private affairs during the last several years of her life were covered extensively by journalist Bill Dedman, who subsequently co-wrote Empty Mansions, a 2013 biography.