Collector bequeaths big tips to waitresses
LONDON: Art collector Robert Ellsworth was a regular at Donohue’s Steak House for years.
At lunchtime he showed up for toasted cheese sandwiches with bacon, and in the evening returned with friends for a sirloin steak.
And while the 85-year-old specialist did not know the surnames of his two favourite waitresses – an aunt and niece, both called Maureen – he took the effort to ensure they were remembered when he died.
A report in the New York Post revealed that Ellsworth had left the two women $50 000 (R599 000) each in his will, referring to them in the document as “Maureen at Donohue’s” and “Maureen-at Donohue’s Niece, Maureen”.
“I was shocked,’’ Maureen Donohue-Peters, 53, who was given the tip with niece, Maureen Barrie, 28, said. “I just couldn’t believe it. I didn’t expect anything.”
Donohue-Peters said Ellsworth, who was worth an estimated $200m when he died in August 2014, had been a regular at the steakhouse for decades.
“Out of eight meals, he ate seven here. We were his dining room,” she said. His meals would be be accompanied by a shot of Jim Beam bourbon.
Ellsworth, who at one time was said to be the world’s wealthiest collector of Asian art, didn’t graduate from high school but was nicknamed “King of Ming” as a result of his expertise in Ming dynasty furniture.
A large chunk of his fortune is going to his live-in chef and friend of more than 40 years, Masahiro Hashiguchi.
Hashiguchi was left $10m, in addition to jewellery, furniture, real estate, crystal and a dog.
The rest will be divided among Ellsworth’s siblings, nieces, nephews and godchildren, as well as household staff and friends, who were each given $100 000.
Some of his artefacts are bound for museums and universities, including the Met, New York University, Harvard and Yale.
Ellsworth died in August last year, reportedly as the result of a fall.