It’s a late September day in West Palm Beach and David Wildenstein, fifth-generation scion of the Wildenstein art , and his wife, Lucrezia Buccellati, a fourth-generation heiress of the Italian high house, are sitting opposite me at an Italian restaurant. Lucrezia, 34, is elegant in a cool white shift dress and discreet jewellery; David, 43, in a polo shirt and slacks, is all-American – notwithstanding that is his godfather. Like all super-rich dynasties, the Wildensteins have always operated on a strict code of .
So this meeting is rare: the first on-the-record interview with any member of the family in decades. But today, as a battle rages in a Parisian court – Wildenstein vs – David engages. The thing is, he says, ‘If you’ve had a black sheep in the family, you inherit that black sheep, even if you are a good person.
’ It’s the reason why David’s father, Guy Wildenstein, is currently fighting for his fate – and that of his dynasty – in that Paris courtroom 4,500 miles away. By the time you read this, Guy may have been sentenced to a year in a French jail and ordered to pay some €750 million in back taxes and fines that prosecutors claim are owed. Hurricane season in South Florida is always unpredictable.
Tropical Storm Ophelia was then churning off the East Coast, bringing bands of heavy rain, then brilliant sunshine. The Wildensteins’ arrangements are changeable, too, as I found out when I awoke in a Beach hotel room on the day of a planned meetin.
