Art Collection Feud Turns Nasty as Billionaire Hubert Neumann Arrested Amid Family Strife
Three days before Christmas, billionaire Hubert Neumann, 91, was arrested at his New York City townhouse after his son-in-law, Jeffrey Donnelly, accused him of a "shoulder shove," New York Post Reported. This marks a heated family dispute over their world-class art collection, which bears a striking resemblance to the HBO series "Succession."
Neumann spent a frigid night in a vermin-infested police cell, sharing his experience with The Post, "My family put me in jail."
Over four years later, the feud has only intensified, with Neumann's youngest daughter, Melissa, admitting she had to stop watching "Succession" because it hit too close to home.
Hubert Neumann, heir to a Chicago mail-order cosmetics fortune, began amassing his impressive art collection 50 years ago with his late father, Morton. The collection includes works by Picasso, Miró, Matisse, Warhol, and Koons. Now, he is embroiled in a legal battle with his second daughter, Belinda, who is attempting to remove him from two trusts he oversees.
Neumann fears that if Belinda succeeds, she could sell the majority, if not all, of the art he's collected over the past five decades.
The Post previously reported the family's dispute over a George Herms sculpture and disclosed the full extent of the ongoing battle. Accusations of wife-beating have emerged during a court fight over Neumann's ex-wife Dolores' will, which was allegedly changed in secret before her death to grant Belinda 80% of the estate, leaving the remaining 20% to the other two daughters. The court recently ruled that Dolores was in sound mind when she made the amendment.
Belinda and Jeffrey's spokesperson told The Post: "Hubert's physical abuse of Dolores is just one element of his 40-plus years of fraud and criminality which, as alleged and will be proven in ongoing litigations." Neumann has denied all allegations of wife-beating, and these claims have not been ruled on by a court.
The spokesperson for the Donnellys also listed a multitude of allegations made in court. In response, Jay Itkowitz, Hubert Neumann's attorney, said the Donnellys were "throwing dirt" and focused on the arrest of the 86-year-old Neumann in 2018.
Hubert claims that Belinda, her husband Jeffrey, and their three children moved into his home in September 2012, rent-free, to care for him in his old age. In contrast, they claim he invited them to move in. The family tensions escalated when Hubert asked Belinda to share her mother's estate equally with her sisters, leading to eviction proceedings against the Donnellys in May 2018.
The feud shows no signs of abating, with various restraining orders and legal battles marking the bitter family dispute.