Alec N. Wildenstein

Alec Wildenstein
Born
Alec Nathan Marcel Wildenstein

5 August 1940
Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, France
Died18 February 2008(2008-02-18) (aged 67)
Paris, France
OccupationsArt dealer, racehorse owner and breeder
Spouses
​
​
(m. 1978; div. 1999)​
Liouba Stoupakova
​
(m. 2000)​
Children2
ParentDaniel Wildenstein (father)
RelativesGuy Wildenstein (brother)

Alec Nathan Marcel Wildenstein (5 August 1940 – 18 February 2008) was an American billionaire businessman, art dealer, racehorse owner, and horse breeder.

Biography

Born in Marseille to Daniel and Martine Julie (Kapferer) Wildenstein, the daughter of art collector Marcel Kapferer, Alec Wildenstein was raised in New York City where his family owned and operated an art gallery. In 1875, his great-grandfather founded a business dealing in art. His father, Daniel Wildenstein, was a distinguished scholar of impressionism. Upon his father's death in 2001, Alec Wildenstein inherited half of his father's business empire estimated at US$10 billion and included what was believed to be the world's largest private collection of major works of art.

Horse racing

Wildenstein enjoyed thoroughbreds for flat and steeplechase and standardbreds for harness racing. His Ecurie Wildenstein racing stable hired Élie Lellouche and Dominique Sepulchre to train his flat horses, and Jean-Paul Gallorini and Marcel Rolland for his steeplechase runners. Wildenstein raced a number of successful horses including:

In 2004, Wildenstein's steeplechase runner, Kotkijet, owned in partnership with Jean-Pierre Dubois, won his second Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris.

Personal life

In 1977, his family purchased a 49% stake for Wildenstein in the first 66,000-acre (27,000-hectare) Ol Jogi Ranch on the Laikipia District in Kenya. In 1985, the family acquired complete ownership. He met Jocelyne Périsset when she was a guest at Ol Jogi Ranch and they were married on 30 April 1978 in Las Vegas, Nevada. They had a daughter, Diane, followed by a son, Alec Jr. Their divorce proceedings between 1997 and 1999 gained wide media coverage for revelations about the couple's extravagant spending habits and the pressure he put on Jocelyne Wildenstein to undergo plastic surgery. In 2000, he married Russian-born model Liouba Stoupakova, who survived him.

References

  1. ↑ "WILDENSTEIN & Cie, Paris (FR)". agorha.inha.fr (in French). Retrieved 3 November 2026. Une partie de la collection de Marcel Kapferer (1872-1966), dont la fille Martine (1920-2018) venait de se marier en 1939 avec Daniel Wildenstein (1917-2001), le fils de Georges, y était également conservée7.
  2. ↑ MUCHNIC, SUZANNE (26 October 2001). "Daniel Wildenstein, 84; Art Dealer". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 24 December 2018.
  3. ↑ Riding, Alan (26 October 2001). "Daniel Wildenstein, 84, Head of Art-World Dynasty, Dies". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 24 December 2018.
  4. ↑ "French Owner Alec Wildenstein Dead". BloodHorse.com. 18 February 2008.
  5. ↑ Ol Jogi Ranch Archived 2011-07-16 at the Wayback Machine, Symbion International
  6. ↑ Peter Ames Carlin, Surgical Strike Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine People, January 26, 1998
  7. ↑ Eric Konigsberg, "What Money Can't Buy", New York Magazine, December 15, 1997]
  8. ↑ "Alec Wildenstein, 67, Art Dealer, Horseman in Scandalous Divorce". 26 February 2008.
  9. ↑ Corbett, Rachel (23 August 2023). "The Inheritance Case That Could Unravel an Art Dynasty". The New York Times.