NEW YORK — Huguette Clark, the Montana copper mining heiress who died in New York last month at age 104, has left most of her $400 million fortune to the arts.
According to her will, whose details were revealed Wednesday, Clark gave to Washington’s Corcoran Gallery of Art a prized Claude Monet water-lily painting not seen by the public since 1925.
The daughter of one-time U.S. Sen. William A. Clark left instructions for the creation of a foundation “for the primary purpose of fostering and promoting the arts,” according to the will prepared and signed in 2005, when she was 98.
About $300 million will go for the arts, including the 1907 Monet, said attorney John Dadakis, of the firm Holland & Knight.
Artworks by Renoir, John Singer Sargent and other greats that graced Clark’s New York home will be moved to her 24-acre oceanfront estate in Santa Barbara, Calif., which will be converted into a museum under the new Bellosguardo Foundation.
