British artist David Hockney died at age 88, leaving behind an estate and art holdings that could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The central question now is whether his partner of the past decade, Jean-Pierre Goncalves de Lima, will inherit everything. Hockney died on June 11 at his home in Marylebone, apparently “quietly,” and reports say he was buried in a very small private ceremony.
Friends told the Daily Mail that in Hockney’s final weeks, after he suffered a stroke and was confined to bed, de Lima isolated him from visitors. One friend said people came with flowers to see him but were told they could not enter. “It was as if we were being kept away from David exactly when we wanted most to see him, hold his hand and tell him how important he was to all of us,” the friend said. Another added, “It is heartbreaking that people came and were turned away.”
According to the report, de Lima began as Hockney’s housekeeper’s assistant and later became his partner. They had been together for 10 years. He organized the funeral, which was attended only by him and Hockney’s nephew, Richard. Friends said they were especially upset that Celia Birtwell, Hockney’s longtime muse who modeled for him more than 80 times over five decades, was also excluded.
De Lima is expected to inherit a fortune that includes at least four London homes, a house in the Hollywood Hills, a waterfront property, a studio in Bridlington in East Yorkshire, and a 17th-century farmhouse in Normandy. The David Hockney Foundation, which controls much of his work, was valued in its latest U.S. filings for 2024 at about $225 million, though friends believe that figure understates its worth because Hockney kept creating after the filing period. The Daily Mail also reported that Hockney’s private art collection may be worth more than £100 million and includes works by Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol and Henri Matisse, although his spokeswoman Erica Bolton denied that such a collection exists.
