Daniel Wildenstein - Death and Inheritance

Death and Inheritance

Wildenstein died in 2001 at the age of 84 in a Paris hospital. He was survived by his wife and sons. Guy Wildenstein assumed responsibility for the art dealership while Alec Wildenstein inherited control of the family's horse racing and breeding operations.

After his death, Wildenstein's fortune became the subject of an extended legal dispute. In 2005 the Court of Appeal in Paris ruled that Sylvia Wildenstein had been deceived into signing away her inheritance by her stepsons, who claimed that she would otherwise face huge tax bills and a possible criminal investigation. In fact Wildenstein had placed two paintings, a Fragonard and a Boucher, with the investment bank Lazard Frères to cover his estate's tax liabilities. The court ruled that Sylvia Wildenstein was entitled to half of her late husband's personal estate, much of which she claimed had disappeared into foreign trusts, and ordered her stepsons to pay 20 million euros as an advance on a fortune described by The New York Times as having been "variously estimated from 43 million to 4 billion euros". In 2010 Sylvia Wildenstein pursued a criminal case alleging that this tax evasion had been ignored by French ministers connected to her stepson Guy Wildenstein through his involvement with the political party the UMP.