Ever wonder what a billionaire’s wife spends her money on?
Well, real estate titan Harry Macklowe’s attorney lifted the curtain on the lavish lifestyle of Linda Macklowe during cross-examination Thursday in their divorce trial.
She started with $37 million cash in June 2016 and made $10 million in withdrawals by July 2017.
Her biggest outlays were to lawyers and their experts — $7.25 million.
But the 79-year-old Guggenheim Foundation trustee also paid art consultants $145,000 and bought herself a $2.7 million painting
The artwork was a tit-for-tat purchase.
“He bought a country house,” Linda Macklowe argued in Manhattan Supreme Court.
She was referring to the $10.6 million Georgica Pond love shack Macklowe, 80, snapped up in July to share with his French girlfriend Patricia Landeau, 62.
“He had nowhere to live!” Harry Macklowe’s attorney Peter Bronstein exclaimed.
“What do you mean nowhere to live?” Linda Macklowe seethed.
“Well nowhere to live in East Hampton,” Bronstein clarified.
“Mrs. Macklowe wanted to have control of that house so we bought another house,” Bronstein said, referring to the former couple’s second home across Georgica Pond.
While Mrs. Macklowe was allegedly hoarding the Hamptons manse, Mr. Macklowe laid claim to their $41 million racing sloop Unfurled.
Bronstein asked Linda Macklowe why she paid $700,000 to charter yachts.
“Since the past year and half I was denied the use of my boat and I wanted to vacation and get some relaxation, which was supplied to me by sailing chartered boats,” Linda Macklowe testified.
Before she took the witness stand her financial expert provided a $1,099-an-hour lesson in tax dodging.
“People in real estate don’t pay taxes,” stated Richard M. Lipton, partner at the Chicago tax law firm Baker McKenzie.
Linda is trying to prove that her estranged husband’s negative $400 million net worth is a fiction because the number is based on deferred capital gains taxes that will never come due.
Lipton described how industry players avoid paying Uncle Same by “utilizing favorable rules” to perform a legal Shell Game with debt.
“The only loser to be very blunt is the IRS,” Lipton said.
Justice Laura Drager disagreed.
“The taxpayers, those who pay taxes in the United States, are hurt,” the judge clarified.
Macklowe is arguing that he should get a share of the $1.3 billion in marital assets — including a $600 million-plus art collection and a $100 million Plaza Hotel apartment. Many of those assets are in the wife’s name.
The Macklowes married in 1959 when he was a 21-year-old in a magazine advertising department and she was a 20-year-old editorial assistant at Doubleday.
She filed for the split last year after learning about his affair with Landeau.
The trial resumes next week.