Metro

Reclusive Manhattan heiress’s estate tops $300 million

A reclusive Fifth Avenue copper heiress was sitting on a $306.5 million fortune when she died, court documents show.

Distant relatives of wildly wealthy Huguette Clark — a childless philanthropist who died last year at 104 — will duke it out with Clark’s longtime nurse, doctors and lawyers over millions in magnificent properties, stocks and personal items, newly filed documents show.

According to an inventory of Clark’s assets filed in Manhattan Surrogate’s Court, the treasure trove includes:

* An $84.5 million, 21,666-square- foot Santa Barbara, Calif., oceanfront estate known as “Bellosguardo.” Clark reportedly hadn’t been there since the 1950s.

* A trio of apartments at 970 Fifth Ave. worth $53 million. There are 42 rooms in all. Two apartments take up the entire 10,000-square- foot eighth floor of the building, and the 5,000-square-foot 12th-floor penthouse boasts sweeping Central Park views.

* “Le Beau Chateau,” a $14.3 million, 12,766-square- foot New Canaan, Conn., manse that Clark bought in 1952 and never inhabited. It boasts nine bedrooms, nine bathrooms, 11 fireplaces, a ballroom, wine cellar and elevator.

The estate also includes $79.3 million in stocks, bonds, cash and trusts, and $75.4 million in “personal property” located in California, Manhattan and an Armonk storage facility, according to the filing. The personal items aren’t listed, but are said to include a Monet painting and a doll collection worth millions.

Clark had two wills. The most recent, apparently signed in April 2005, leaves most of her fortune to charity, with an eye-popping $30 million payout, in property, to her private nurse. Another will, signed six weeks earlier, left Clark’s estate to about 20 great-nephews and great- nieces, and they are challenging the newer will.

The daughter of a Montana senator who made a fortune in copper and railroads and founded Las Vegas, Clark spent the last 20 years of her life in seclusion at Beth Israel Medical Center, where she was allowed to live in return for $13 million, court papers say.