Hyfler/Rosner
2008-02-23 16:42:50 UTC
Alec Wildenstein
Last Updated: 9:06pm GMT 20/02/2008
Telegraph
Alec Wildenstein, who died on Monday aged 67, was born
into one of the world's most powerful art-dealing dynasties
and was a familiar figure in European horse racing; to the
wider public, however, he was best known as a protagonist in
one of the most lurid divorce actions of recent years.
The son of Daniel Wildenstein, Alec was born in
Marseilles on August 5 1940 and received his education in
New York.
The family empire had been founded in Alsace in 1875
by Nathan Wildenstein, a cloth merchant who began to deal in
valuable works of art.
His son, Georges, opened a gallery in New York in 1940
and was later to stand accused of profiting from the
confusion of the war in Europe.
Nathan's grandson, Daniel (Alec's father), expanded
the business to include galleries in London and Tokyo.
Much of the family's collection is said to be housed
in a nuclear bunker in the Catskill mountains, New York
state.
A French art historian who saw part of it in 1959
reported "400 Italian primitives, a Fra Angelico, two
Botticellis, eight Rembrandts, as many Rubens, three rare
Velasquez, nine El Grecos, five Tintorettos (one of which
was four metres high), four Titians, 12 Poussins and 79
Fragonards" - and these were just the Old Masters.
Daniel Wildenstein also became a powerful force in
horse racing, particularly in France; among the horses he
owned were Peintre Célèbre, All Along and Sagace.
After his death in 2001 his younger son, Guy, assumed
control of the art business, leaving Alec to concentrate on
the bloodstock interests.
Success on the track continued. In 2002 the family's
Bright Sky won the Prix de Diane (the French Oaks) and the
Prix de l'Opéra.
The following year Vallée Enchantée won the Hong Kong
Vase; and in 2005 (when Royal Ascot was held at York) Alec
Wildenstein's horse Westerner won the Gold Cup.
Like his father, however, Alec Wildenstein could
become somewhat disagreeable when things did not go his way.
When Vallée Enchantée finished only third in the
Coronation Cup at Epsom his reaction was not in the best
traditions of the Turf: "We weren't unlucky - she was ridden
by an asshole who didn't follow instructions," he told the
press, before sacking his retained jockey.
When he lost another big race Wildenstein was heard to
observe in the winners' enclosure: "The dope-testing machine
must be broken."
In 1978, in a ceremony at Las Vegas, Wildenstein had
married the Swiss-born Jocelyne Perisse.
The couple had been introduced the year before by
Adnan Khashoggi, who had invited her to stay at his ranch in
Kenya. Wildenstein's own estate was nearby, and it was
arranged that Jocelyne should join him on a dawn lion hunt.
Within a year he had proposed.
The couple moved between an apartment in Paris, a
Caribbean beach estate, a château in France and a house in
Lausanne. Their marital base was a five-storey New York
townhouse which was also home to five pure-bred greyhounds
and a rare monkey.
Then there was the 66,000-acre Ol-Jogi ranch in Kenya
which they turned into a sort of African Versailles,
importing giraffe, leopard, lion, white rhino and other big
game, some from South Africa.
Refinements included the building of 120 miles of
road, 55 artificial lakes, a swimming pool with rocks and
waterfalls, a golf course, a racetrack, and a tennis court
with floodlights so bright it was said they could be seen
from most of Kenya - all maintained by an army of 366
servants.
Determined that his wife should always outshine her
rivals at Manhattan social events, Alec Wildenstein spent
lavishly on her wardrobe and bought her huge quantities of
jewellery. She once spent $10 million in one visit to
Cartier.
According to Jocelyne Wildenstein, however, her
husband was a difficult man to please.
She began to fear that he was losing interest in her,
and, calling to mind that he liked exotic wild cats, decided
that he might find her more attractive if she became "more
feline". To achieve the desired effect she even had her
pigment darkened.
Unfortunately her plastic surgery (costing a
cumulative £2 million) had the opposite effect of that
intended.
The first time Wildenstein saw his newly-sculpted
wife, he was said to have screamed in horror, unable to
recognise her. "She seems to think that you fix a face the
same way you fix a house," he was later to complain. But
Jocelyne took his reaction as evidence that she had not gone
far enough.
She embarked on a series of cosmetic procedures to
"improve" her looks. These included collagen injections to
her lips, cheeks and chin, along with at least seven
facelifts and drastic eye reconstruction surgery.
By the end her skin was stretched so tightly over her
face that she could scarcely blink, and her lips were so
stuffed with collagen they looked like rubber. She became
known as "the Bride of Wildenstein".
In June 1997 she returned unannounced from Kenya to
their New York town house to find her husband in the marital
bed with a 19-year-old Russian model. As Jocelyne marched
into the room, Wildenstein seized his Smith & Wesson and
threatened to shoot her. (He later claimed that he had
thought he was being burgled.)
The rest of their relationship was played out
acrimoniously in the courts as Jocelyn Wildenstein sued for
divorce on the ground of her husband's adultery.
She needed $1 million a month to run her household,
she declared, because years of dependence on servants had
left her with no idea of how to light a stove, make toast or
boil an egg.
After a lengthy court hearing, she was awarded tens of
millions of dollars, including $540,000 in back maintenance.
The judge, however, ordered that she pay for further
facelifts herself and advised her to buy a microwave.
Wildenstein's legal problems were not over. In 2005
his stepmother Sylvia - a former Israeli army sergeant -
took him to court, claiming that he and his brother Guy had
cheated her out of her inheritance on the death of their
father. The Court of Appeal in Paris ordered the brothers to
pay her £10 million.
Alec Wildenstein, who had been suffering from cancer,
is survived by his second wife, Liouba Stoupakova, whom he
married in 2000, and by a son and daughter of his first
marriage.
Last Updated: 9:06pm GMT 20/02/2008
Telegraph
Alec Wildenstein, who died on Monday aged 67, was born
into one of the world's most powerful art-dealing dynasties
and was a familiar figure in European horse racing; to the
wider public, however, he was best known as a protagonist in
one of the most lurid divorce actions of recent years.
The son of Daniel Wildenstein, Alec was born in
Marseilles on August 5 1940 and received his education in
New York.
The family empire had been founded in Alsace in 1875
by Nathan Wildenstein, a cloth merchant who began to deal in
valuable works of art.
His son, Georges, opened a gallery in New York in 1940
and was later to stand accused of profiting from the
confusion of the war in Europe.
Nathan's grandson, Daniel (Alec's father), expanded
the business to include galleries in London and Tokyo.
Much of the family's collection is said to be housed
in a nuclear bunker in the Catskill mountains, New York
state.
A French art historian who saw part of it in 1959
reported "400 Italian primitives, a Fra Angelico, two
Botticellis, eight Rembrandts, as many Rubens, three rare
Velasquez, nine El Grecos, five Tintorettos (one of which
was four metres high), four Titians, 12 Poussins and 79
Fragonards" - and these were just the Old Masters.
Daniel Wildenstein also became a powerful force in
horse racing, particularly in France; among the horses he
owned were Peintre Célèbre, All Along and Sagace.
After his death in 2001 his younger son, Guy, assumed
control of the art business, leaving Alec to concentrate on
the bloodstock interests.
Success on the track continued. In 2002 the family's
Bright Sky won the Prix de Diane (the French Oaks) and the
Prix de l'Opéra.
The following year Vallée Enchantée won the Hong Kong
Vase; and in 2005 (when Royal Ascot was held at York) Alec
Wildenstein's horse Westerner won the Gold Cup.
Like his father, however, Alec Wildenstein could
become somewhat disagreeable when things did not go his way.
When Vallée Enchantée finished only third in the
Coronation Cup at Epsom his reaction was not in the best
traditions of the Turf: "We weren't unlucky - she was ridden
by an asshole who didn't follow instructions," he told the
press, before sacking his retained jockey.
When he lost another big race Wildenstein was heard to
observe in the winners' enclosure: "The dope-testing machine
must be broken."
In 1978, in a ceremony at Las Vegas, Wildenstein had
married the Swiss-born Jocelyne Perisse.
The couple had been introduced the year before by
Adnan Khashoggi, who had invited her to stay at his ranch in
Kenya. Wildenstein's own estate was nearby, and it was
arranged that Jocelyne should join him on a dawn lion hunt.
Within a year he had proposed.
The couple moved between an apartment in Paris, a
Caribbean beach estate, a château in France and a house in
Lausanne. Their marital base was a five-storey New York
townhouse which was also home to five pure-bred greyhounds
and a rare monkey.
Then there was the 66,000-acre Ol-Jogi ranch in Kenya
which they turned into a sort of African Versailles,
importing giraffe, leopard, lion, white rhino and other big
game, some from South Africa.
Refinements included the building of 120 miles of
road, 55 artificial lakes, a swimming pool with rocks and
waterfalls, a golf course, a racetrack, and a tennis court
with floodlights so bright it was said they could be seen
from most of Kenya - all maintained by an army of 366
servants.
Determined that his wife should always outshine her
rivals at Manhattan social events, Alec Wildenstein spent
lavishly on her wardrobe and bought her huge quantities of
jewellery. She once spent $10 million in one visit to
Cartier.
According to Jocelyne Wildenstein, however, her
husband was a difficult man to please.
She began to fear that he was losing interest in her,
and, calling to mind that he liked exotic wild cats, decided
that he might find her more attractive if she became "more
feline". To achieve the desired effect she even had her
pigment darkened.
Unfortunately her plastic surgery (costing a
cumulative £2 million) had the opposite effect of that
intended.
The first time Wildenstein saw his newly-sculpted
wife, he was said to have screamed in horror, unable to
recognise her. "She seems to think that you fix a face the
same way you fix a house," he was later to complain. But
Jocelyne took his reaction as evidence that she had not gone
far enough.
She embarked on a series of cosmetic procedures to
"improve" her looks. These included collagen injections to
her lips, cheeks and chin, along with at least seven
facelifts and drastic eye reconstruction surgery.
By the end her skin was stretched so tightly over her
face that she could scarcely blink, and her lips were so
stuffed with collagen they looked like rubber. She became
known as "the Bride of Wildenstein".
In June 1997 she returned unannounced from Kenya to
their New York town house to find her husband in the marital
bed with a 19-year-old Russian model. As Jocelyne marched
into the room, Wildenstein seized his Smith & Wesson and
threatened to shoot her. (He later claimed that he had
thought he was being burgled.)
The rest of their relationship was played out
acrimoniously in the courts as Jocelyn Wildenstein sued for
divorce on the ground of her husband's adultery.
She needed $1 million a month to run her household,
she declared, because years of dependence on servants had
left her with no idea of how to light a stove, make toast or
boil an egg.
After a lengthy court hearing, she was awarded tens of
millions of dollars, including $540,000 in back maintenance.
The judge, however, ordered that she pay for further
facelifts herself and advised her to buy a microwave.
Wildenstein's legal problems were not over. In 2005
his stepmother Sylvia - a former Israeli army sergeant -
took him to court, claiming that he and his brother Guy had
cheated her out of her inheritance on the death of their
father. The Court of Appeal in Paris ordered the brothers to
pay her £10 million.
Alec Wildenstein, who had been suffering from cancer,
is survived by his second wife, Liouba Stoupakova, whom he
married in 2000, and by a son and daughter of his first
marriage.
