Huggett Clark, the name is unfamiliar to most people.
She is the most mysterious rich man in American history. Her family is known as the Living American Dream.
She inherited a copper mining empire at the age of 19. She had a first-class ticket to the Titanic, and monet's Water Lilies is one of her countless collections in the movie.
After 18 years of rubbing shoulders with death, she left the family estate, locked herself in an apartment with a thousand dolls, and was admitted to the hospital under a false name before her death.
Few people knew of her existence during her lifetime, leaving countless mysteries after her death. Why did she lock herself in her apartment? And who unearthed her secrets?
Today, follow us to the first otaku in the United States. New friends don't forget to pay attention.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="7" > the pearl in the pocket of the richest man in the United States</h1>
Huguet was born in Paris in 1906. When she was born, her father, William Clarke, was already 67 years old. He is considered one of the richest men in the United States, and the New York Times believes that he has more wealth than the famous oil magnate Rockefeller.
Like the most classic American dream of that era, William was originally a farm boy in Pennsylvania, who made his fortune in the gold nuggets and later ventured into banking, becoming a rich man by running a copper mining industry. He had many titles, mine owner, railroad tycoon and even state legislators.
William had two marriages in his lifetime, and his wife died prematurely. As his wife's four children grew up, William fell hopelessly in love with a woman 39 years younger than her, and soon married and gave birth to two daughters, Andrea and Huggett.
William was extremely fond of every child and did not mind using money to show his love for the child. In his early years, he built a special resort for his children, which included a zoo and playground. When he grew old and had children, his love for his two daughters reached the extreme.
Huguet spent half of his childhood in France. The mother raised her two daughters in the manner of European aristocrats, who often rode horses, participated in salons and dances. Huguet was influenced by the art capital of Paris early on, showing her extraordinary talent.
She began learning violin at the age of 6, and her daughter William sold her an antique 1709 violin, the Virgin daughter. This piano is the masterpiece of the famous craftsman Stedillawari, once praised as the most perfect piano in the world, and is the dream of musicians. At that time, how much money this piano cost William, it is impossible to verify. After Hugart's death, the piano was auctioned for six million dollars.
Hugert was also very fond of painting, and her talent and enthusiasm for painting were extraordinary. When painting in pastels was popular, she maverickly painted herself in mixed oil paints. In 1929, she also held an exhibition of her own paintings.
The theme of her paintings favors Japanese women, and is full of a sense of quiet and lonely beauty, as if to portray her heart.
Hugett, who travels in and out of high society in various countries, is not a social flower, she has been a shy girl since she was a child. She was not very close to her mother, and the person she was most attached to was her sister Andrea. She would tell her sister all her troubles, and she would always protect her. In Hugert's mind, the sister is more like a "mother" than her mother.
In 1912, the Clarks had planned to take the Titanic back to New York, but missed the set sail by mistake. A few days later they heard about the tragedy of the shipwreck, and the family was terrified and somewhat happy about their luck.
But good luck didn't take care of them for long. In 1919, a week before Andrea's 17th birthday, she developed meningitis and died a few days later. At the time, Hugart was only 13 years old, and her sister's death hit her hard, and she began to understand the impermanence of life and panic about death.
Six years later, William Clarke also died. He lived to be 87 years old, a rare high lifespan at the time. But Hugert can't accept her father's death, and the introverted becomes more closed.
William left a huge inheritance to his five children, and Huguet inherited the family's St. Barbara estate and a fifth of the property, which is now worth $3.4 billion.
At this time, during the Great Depression in the United States, the 19-year-old girl and her sky-high property became the topic of conversation in the streets. Gossip tabloids in particular liked to publish cartoons that satirized her, portraying her as a ruthless rich lady. Because of the atmosphere of social hatred for the rich, the Clark family even sealed William's Cadillac luxury car.
Not long after, the always docile Huggett caused a scandal in the family.
Hugert is not a wealthy lady who knows the world, she inherited her father's extraordinary financial talents. In order to take care of the property, she often met with accountants, so she met William Goyle, the son of the family accountant. Shortly after graduating, Goyle was a small bank clerk, and was very different from Huguet's social class. Huguet, who had lost her sister and father, decided that Goyle was the third most important person in her life.
The mother strongly opposed the marriage, and the gossip tabloids also ridiculed the big lady for not knowing people clearly and falling in love with the poor boy who was rich and rich.
They were still married. Unfortunately, the gossip tabloids became a slur, and Goyle's temperament changed drastically after his marriage, and the marriage lasted only two years. Gore had to pay a sky-high divorce compensation fee in the divorce lawsuit.
Hugett was extremely disappointed, she felt that things were unpredictable, and the only thing that could appease her was art and the dolls that had accompanied her since childhood.
In 1930, Hugert moved out of the 23-acre Santa Barbara estate and disappeared into public view, beginning her 80-year life as a homesteader.
In just a few years, she had gone from being the rich lady who was the favorite of the gossip tabloids to a woman unknown to an unknown woman.
Unimpressed, Hugert moved into Apartment 907, next to New York's Central Park, with her countless collections. She owns the two floors of this apartment with a total of 42 rooms.
At first, Hugett was only in-depth and simple, and he was also fascinated by photography, often taking pictures of himself. When her mother died in 1967, she completely shut herself off, and her video material disappeared.
Hugert became a ghost in the mansion.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="56" > crazy collectible</h1>
In 1970, a special auction house, Saleots, was born, specializing in antique dolls. From the day it opened, the legend of a mysterious guest circulated throughout the company.
At first, the salesman received a phone call from a soft-spoken woman asking Celeots if she could accept the phone offer. The salesman was very surprised and said that they did not have this kind of service. At this time, an executive who has been in the antique doll market for many years took the phone and told the other party: "We are providing this service from now on." ”
For more than forty years, no one had ever seen this mysterious guest. But the employees all know that as long as it is a doll she likes, no matter how fierce the competition, the final winner must be her, because there is no upper limit to her bid.
This mysterious buyer is none other than Hugart. Huggett threw all her enthusiasm into the doll after she went into seclusion. She prefers Antique French dolls, especially those that retain their original configuration. The price of this intact doll is extremely high, but Huguette does not care about the price, and one of her most famous dolls cost her a hundred thousand dollars. Over the course of a few decades, she has collected more than a thousand dolls, ranging from her favorite French antique dolls to Chinese robot dolls. After her death, Seliontz published a catalogue to present her collection.
Later, it was found that she had written to Dior founder Dior, asking him to customize the costumes for the dolls with his own designated fabrics, and Dior also took over the business, and then made several sets of doll clothes for her, which should be the dream of doll lovers.
Hugert treats dolls like any other work of art. In her apartment, dolls are placed next to jewelry and famous paintings.
Hugart's most famous jewelry collection is a 9-carat pink diamond, which christie's auction house calls Clark's Diamond. At the 2012 Clark Jewelry Collection auction, the diamond fetched more than $15 million.
The paintings are also one of Hugert's favorite collections. She was particularly fond of the paintings of Monet and Renoir. The heroine's collection of "Water Lilies" in the movie "Titanic" is actually Huggett's collection. Christie's auction is valued at between RMB150 million and RMB220 million.
Another of Huguet's paintings has sparked a mystery in art history.
In 1991, Huguet unfortunately developed skin cancer. She had to move out of apartment 907 and go to the hospital for treatment. The following year, her lawyer went to her apartment to take stock of the collection and found that there was a pair of "Ballerinas Standing on Tiptoes" missing. The security of the apartment is strict, and they have searched for clues and traces and have not been able to find out how the painting disappeared. If someone steals, why doesn't he take away the more valuable paintings and jewelry?
Since then, the painting has been known as the "Disappearing Ballerina". In 2008, the FBI finally discovered the whereabouts of the ballerinas in the home of collector Bullock, and before the FBI could ask how they got the paintings, 102-year-old Hugett called off the investigation. She didn't want her case to be noticed, and she made a deal with Bullock in private, agreeing that he would have a ballerina while he was alive and that when he died, she would have to donate the painting to a museum she sponsored.
Once again, Hugert disappeared from public view. She had long since been cured of cancer, but she may have regained the feeling of being pampered under the care of the hospital, and she never left the hospital. She lived in hospital wards under a pseudonym for twenty years. Even her real estate managers don't know where she is.
In 2009, a reporter visiting a mansion inadvertently broke through Hugert's hidden life.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="46" > the story of an empty house</h1>
Bill Deideman, a 2009 Pulitzer Prize winner, began investigating the stories of American mansions, and when he was stunned by the seven- or eight-million-dollar mansions, he found a $24 million estate that was even priced at $35 million at its best.
During his investigation, he was told by the housekeeper that the owner of the manor had never been here since 1951, but the owner made a strange request to him that the manor remain as if it were still inhabited. In addition, she has two sky-high real estate buildings. One of the villas, perched on a cliff by the sea, was bought by a buyer a few years ago, and the other party offered a price of $100 million, but the owner resolutely refused. The other is Apartment 907 in New York.
Bill found that the owner of the house had made the same request to the other two caretakers, but they had never met the owner.
He found out that the owner's name was Hugart Clark, and he contacted Hugart's cousin, only to be told that even his family did not know where she was. In 2011, he got the news that Hugert had died.
She left behind an inheritance of more than $400 million. She donated most of the collection and converted part of The Manor of Santa Barbara into a Girl Scout base. Dozens of relatives she had never met fought over the remaining part of the estate, and soon the hospital appeared with a second will, stating that Huggett had left them a sum of money. Huguet's legacy lawsuit has been fought for nearly a decade, and now it is not over.
This shy woman, who had to talk to the apartment housekeeper and hide in the shadows, became a talking point after her death. The glory of the Clark family turned into a notorious inheritance dispute.
If Hugert could see this, what do you think she would think?
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