Heirs at odds over Brooke Astor’s $190M estate

NEW YORK – In life, Brooke Astor was a picture of poise and largesse. With her death, the brewing battle over her estate could be much less dignified.

Heirs of the famed philanthropist were at odds even before she passed away and could clash in the coming weeks over the validity of her will.

At stake is a personal fortune reportedly worth about $130 million and a trust valued at $60 million, left by her late husband, Vincent Astor.

Astor, 105, died Monday of pneumonia at her 65-acre suburban estate overlooking the Hudson River following months of declining health and family infighting over her care and financial legacy.

The bitter feud – pitting her son against his own offspring – spilled over into the press and sparked a criminal investigation by the Manhattan district attorney into whether amendments to Astor’s will were fraudulent. The investigation continues, district attorney spokeswoman Barbara Thompson said Tuesday.

Under the terms of a separate settlement involving her guardianship, Astor’s son, Anthony Marshall, and his wife, Charlene, gave up their positions as co-executors of the estate.

Details of the will, which was filed under seal, were leaked to The New York Times in June by an unidentified person close to the case.

Astor signed the original document on Jan. 30, 2002.

In it, she wrote her own epitaph: “I had a wonderful life.” She also requested that four of her dog paintings go to Annette de la Renta, a close friend and wife of designer Oscar de la Renta. Her daughter-in-law would get mink and chinchilla coats.

But questions are expected to arise in Westchester County Surrogate Court over changes made to the will in early 2003 and late 2004. The Times reported that one amendment shifted millions of dollars from some of Astor’s favorite causes – like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York Zoological Society – to her son’s charitable trust, the Anthony Marshall Fund.

Lawyers involved in the guardianship battle were the first to question whether Astor was too frail to approve the amendments. Prosecutors began their criminal probe when a court-appointed attorney claimed one of her signatures appeared to be forged.

A handwriting expert, according to the lawyer, had concluded that Astor “could not have written the questioned ‘Brooke Russell Astor’ signature … due to the deterioration of her ability to write her name.”

The feud over one of America’s most prominent socialites first made headlines last July, when one of her grandsons, Philip Marshall, asked a court to remove his father from her affairs. The grandson accused his father of abusing his grandmother by letting her live in squalor in her Park Avenue duplex while he looted her fortune.

“Her bedroom is so cold in the winter that my grandmother is forced to sleep in the TV room in torn nightgowns on a filthy couch that smells, probably from dog urine,” Philip Marshall alleged in an affidavit.

He also claimed that Astor had not seen her prized pet dogs, Boysie and Girlsie, for six months because they were kept locked in a pantry.

Anthony Marshall, a former diplomat and Broadway producer, denied the allegations, but agreed to step aside as his mother’s guardian last year. A judge appointed Annette de la Renta as guardian of Astor’s personal care and JPMorgan Chase bank as guardian of her property.

The son said he was “shocked and deeply hurt by the allegations against me, which are completely untrue.”

Under the terms of the settlement, he admitted no wrongdoing.