Artist's Widow Said Malnourished
Andrea Bostrom
By SAMUEL MAULL
.c The Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) - The mentally ill widow of artist Hans Hofmann died rich, alone
and malnourished in a luxury apartment littered with garbage and dead cats
because she was neglected by her caretakers, according to court papers.
Court-appointed guardians, who were supposed to protect Renate Hofmann and her
$50 million fortune, allowed her to hole up in her filthy $1 million apartment
in Florida for months at a time, unbathed, covered with sores and eating cat
food, the documents filed Wednesday allege.
Hans Hofmann and Renate Schmitz, both German born, married in 1964 in
Provincetown, Mass., a year after his first wife died. He was 84 and had
founded the abstract expressionist art movement. She was 34.
She was 62 when her body was found Sept. 16, 1992. She apparently had been dead
for several days.
``She died from the consequences of mental illness and chronic (alcoholism),''
according to papers filed in Manhattan's Surrogate Court by Robert S. Warshaw,
executor of her estate. ``And she died alone, without benefit of personal care,
medical treatment or human companionship.''
Renate Hofmann fell mentally ill and became an alcoholic after her husband's
death in 1966. In the late 1970s, a judge found her unfit to care for herself
and appointed separate guardians for her personal health and property.
The conditions in which she spent her final years came to light after an
appeals court upheld Manhattan Surrogate Eve Preminger's refusal to seal the
record of litigation over the estate.
In 1998, Warshaw served court papers on the guardians seeking damages for the
pain and suffering Renate Hofmann allegedly endured before her death.
Richard S. Covey, who was responsible for her personal well-being, and U.S.
Trust Co., a bank responsible for her property, settled the neglect claim,
refunding $6.2 million to the estate and dropping claims to another $2.5
million.
Warshaw blamed Hofmann's death on the inaction of Covey, U.S. Trust, the
guardians appointed by the court and her bodyguard who lived in Virginia.
The bodyguard could not be located for comment. Covey's law firm said he was
out of town and couldn't comment.
U.S. Trust issued a statement absolving itself of responsibility for Hofmann's
condition in her final days.
U.S. Trust ``was responsible for safeguarding and managing her financial
property and tangible assets. We discharged our responsibilities in a
thoroughly professional way,'' spokeswoman Virginia Steinberg said. ``The court
designated Richard Covey alone as committee of her person.''
AP-NY-07-19-01 0618EDT
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