British artist David Hockney died at 88 and left behind an estate estimated at at least $225 million, setting off questions about who will inherit his wealth, especially whether his partner of the past decade, Jean-Pierre Goncalves de Lima, will receive everything. Hockney died on June 11 at his home in Marylebone after a stroke and was described as having died quietly.
Friends quoted by the Daily Mail say de Lima isolated Hockney from them in his final weeks, when he was bedridden after the stroke. One friend said they visited with flowers but were told they could not enter, adding, “It felt like we were being kept away from David exactly when we most wanted to see him.” Another said many friends are deeply upset they could not see him before he died.
The report says de Lima, who began as Hockney’s housekeeper and later became his partner, organized the funeral, which was attended only by him and Hockney’s nephew, Richard. Friends say no one else was invited, including Celia Birtwell, the fashion designer who was Hockney’s muse for decades and modeled for him more than 80 times over about five decades. One friend said, “This is not what David would have wanted.”
Very few details have been made public about Hockney’s death or his private collection, which he kept secret. The Daily Mail said the collection includes works by Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol and Henri Matisse, and could be worth more than £100 million. But Hockney’s spokeswoman, Erika Bolton, denied that such a private collection existed.
The main holdings in his art are said to be controlled by The David Hockney Foundation, whose latest U.S. filings for 2024 value it at about $225 million. People close to Hockney say that figure likely understates the true value, because he kept creating after those filings were made.
