Ex-S&C Lawyer Tells of Astor’s Alzheimer's Diagnosis, Later Painting Sale
Multimillionaire Brooke Astor confessed to worries about needing the money when she told her lawyer she wanted to sell a painting by Childe Hassam, but she had joked in the past that she couldn’t afford to buy dresses, the lawyer testified yesterday.
Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Loewy questioned whether the painting comment was intended as a joke, the New York Times reports. Prosecutors contend Astor’s son, Anthony Marshall, had convinced his mother she was running out of money despite her assets of more than $150 million, according to Bloomberg. Marshall has been charged with grand larceny for taking a $2 million commission after arranging for the sale of the painting for $10 million.
Henry Christensen III had been the head of trusts and estates at Sullivan & Cromwell when he represented both Brooke Astor and her son. Marshall is accused in the criminal trial of changing his mother’s will to benefit himself and another lawyer, Francis X. Morrissey.
“I told her she had more money than she could possibly spend,” Christensen said.
The conversation between Astor and Christensen took place a year after Astor’s physician told the lawyer that she had second-stage Alzheimer’s disease, which impairs reasoning and language skills, Christensen testified.
Christensen, who now is a partner at McDermott, Will & Emery, drafted a codicil to Astor’s will in December 2003 that gave Marshall the authority to decide which charities could receive up to 49 percent of one of her trust funds. He was fired a month later from further work for the estate because he would not agree to will changes that increased Marshall’s share of her estate, prosecutors say.
Astor died in August 2007 at the age of 105. Marshall’s 85th birthday is this weekend.
