last wills and testaments

Late Sculptor Will Pay $10,000 Each to Display Her Many Works

This one is called Arches no. 9. Photo: Mary Lincoln Bonnell/Courtesy shot

Proving that money can definitely buy artistic notoriety (if not acclaim), a wealthy sculptor who never sold a piece has a clause in her will that pretty much guarantees her work will be displayed long after her death. Mary Lincoln Bonnell posthumously offered $10,000 to anyone who will take one of her 70 sculptures out of storage and display it regularly. The Manhattan artist died tragically in a fire in April at the age of 84. But her scheme to use her millions to ensure her legacy is working. Her trustee “has placed Bonnell’s sculptures at NYU’s Law School, the Historic Hudson Valley Society, and Guild Hall in East Hampton,” the New York Post reports. But he has 67 more to go. If there’s any money left after ten years, her cousins get it, so the clock is ticking on this particular offer.

Late Sculptor Will Pay to Display Her Work