Sotheby’s widow locked out of flat by stepchildren

Stand-off: Judy Taubman and luggage at the flat
Jenny Goodall/Daily Mail
Matt Watts|John Dunne @jhdunne14 September 2015

The widow of billionare Sotheby’s owner Alfred Taubman was locked out of her Mayfair flat by her stepchildren in a family feud over two paintings.

Judy Taubman, 70, was left standing on the pavement — surrounded by a pile of 10 suitcases — after arriving in London from New York to find a security guard posted on the door.

Her husband Alfred Taubman, a property tycoon who bought the world-famous auction house in 1983, died in April this year aged 91 leaving his vast fortune to be divided up.

But relations between his widow and his children by his first wife — Gayle, 64, Robert, 62, and William, 57 — are now so strained that on Friday open warfare broke out over two paintings hanging in the flat which are worth £200,000 each. The former 1962 Miss Universe runner-up told the Mail: “I walked to the door and this guard told me I could not come in. I was married to my husband for 33 years, he will be turning in his grave at how his children are behaving. It is pure evil.”

Mrs Taubman claimed the flat was left to her, but until the estate is released in mid-October it remains under the control of his three children. Although they have been allowing her to use the property, the stand-off arose because of a dispute over the two paintings.

After eight hours, the auction house sent a van to pick up the paintings, and Mrs Taubman was finally allowed inside.

A spokesman for the three Taubman children, all based in America, said the incident had been “regrettable and unnecessary” but it had been resolved with “no force needed”.

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