An Imelda Marcos wannabe has lost her bid to cash in on $25 million in art that her husband removed from their Fifth Avenue pad just before he filed for divorce.
Well-heeled socialite Tracey Hejailan-Amon — who, like the former Philippine first lady, is known for her enormous shoe collection — has no right to the art trove, which includes a Basquiat titled “Saxaphone” and a 1966 self-portrait by Andy Warhol, a Manhattan judge ruled last week.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Robert Reed sided with Swiss businessman Maurice Alain Amon in dismissing estranged wife Hejailan-Amon’s action to retain at least partial ownership of the art collection that her soon-to-be ex-hubby placed in storage while she was gallivanting around Europe.
Amon filed for divorce from her in 2015 in Monaco.
The judge found that the artwork was her husband’s property.
Lawyers for Hejailan-Amon vowed to appeal, arguing that their client was entitled to at least part of the painting fortune under New York’s property law.
The decision is only the latest in a series of legal setbacks for the socialite, who attempted to move the divorce proceedings from Monaco, where Amon lives, to New York, where they have a home and where laws would entitle her to more of the hefty estate.
That bid was dismissed late last year after lawyers for Amon successfully argued that his wife spent most of her time in their Monte Carlo apartment — citing as proof the collection of at least 80 pairs of shoes that she kept there.
With the proceedings set to continue in Monaco, Hejailan-Amon could now not only lose out on the artwork but also be forced to hand over the nearly $70 million in gifts her husband gave her over the course of their eight-year marriage, as per divorce law in the European city-state.
Amon’s lawyer, Peter Bronstein, told The Post that he and his client saw “no merit” for Hejailan-Amon’s appeal over the artwork.
Her lawyers declined to comment.
At one point, Amon argued that the legal battle over the artwork was costing him millions of dollars, since he wanted to sell it and the market was cooling by the day.