Billionaire Hubert Neumann and Daughter in Battle Over Pricey Art Collection

Publish date: 2024-04-03

Billionaire Hubert Neumann, an heir of mail-order cosmetics, is in a monstrous money battle with one of his daughters that previously landed the elderly man in jail. Neumann, 91, is a notorious artwork aficionado, with a collection spanning five decades including pieces from Picasso, Warhol, Matisse, and Basquiat. However, Neumann claimed his daughter, Belinda Donnelly, secretly got his ex-wife to change her will right before she died so that Donnelly could own 80 percent of the estate, leaving the final 20 percent to her two sisters. A spokesperson for Donnelly and her husband, Jeffrey, accused Neumann of being physically abusive toward his ex-wife as “just one element of his 40-plus years of fraud and criminality.” In May 2018, shortly before Neumann was set to evict the Donnellys from his house, the couple got a temporary protection order against Neumann. Months later, they alleged that he violated the order because he “shoulder checked” Jeffrey after a heated discussion over the estate—landing Neumann in jail for a night. Then in 2019, Jeffrey withdrew the protection order petition, leaving Neumann no chance to refute their claims in court, the Post reported. The criminal matter was dismissed. Now, Neumann is afraid for the future of his art collection as his daughter and her husband “throw dirt” on his reputation. His youngest daughter, Melissa, said the saga was all too reminiscent of the TV show Succession, saying, “I had to stop watching it as it hit too close to home.”

Read it at New York Post

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