The daughter of a famed Chinese artist and scholar claims her brother and nephew have “systematically” looted her father’s vast art collection — but the nephew says she’s the real culprit.
The decade-long battle over the estate of CC Wang has unfolded in Manhattan Surrogate’s Court, where daughter Yien-Koo King has accused her brother, Shou-Kung Wang, and his son, Andrew Wang, of tricking the elder man into giving them control of his estate.
They are part “of a group of con artists who have systematically stolen, lied and cheated their way to millions of dollars worth of highly valuable, ancient Chinese artwork,” King claims in a Manhattan federal lawsuit filed last month.
CC Wang, who died in 2003 at age 97, donated 25 works to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
He fled Communist China to New York in the late 1940s with King, she says. While King became an artist in her own right, her brother “remained in China” until 1979, according to the suit.
Now, King claims the long and winding court battle over her father’s estate has yielded an important admission from her brother and nephew, who are accused of selling off pieces of Wang’s $60 million collection to “friends” for a marginal fee before later “repossessing” the art and selling it overseas for millions.
Shou-Kung and Andrew listed Andrew’s address in China as the destination for some of the art they sold, King claims.
Andrew, in his own Oct. 10 Manhattan Supreme Court suit, claims his aunt is the one selling off the famed artist’s works for millions.