Even among the world’s most selective art collectors and museum directors, a tour of Hubert Neumann’s home on Manhattan’s Upper West Side is a rare privilege.
Every wall in the five-storey townhouse is lined with a seminal array of modern masterpieces, including works by Miró, Warhol and Picasso, who became a family friend.
But the collection, worth an estimated $1 billion, is the focus of a bitter feud that has sparked at least 18 lawsuits and allegations of abuse and fraud, tearing the family apart.
The rift started in 2016 with the death of Neumann’s estranged wife Dolores, herself an avid collector and an early champion of the graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.
For years Dolores had assured their three daughters that her estate would be
