The estate of Col. Michael Friedsam, president of B. Altman & Company, philanthropist, communal leader and o### of the world’s outstanding art col###rs, was appraised at $20,064,187 gross, and $19,459,400 net, according to the State Transfer Tax Department. Col. Friedsam, who died April 6, 1931, gave $158,868,926 in charitable and public bequests. His art collections, valued arbitrarily at over $2,500,000, were left to museums.
The Altman Foundation, named as residuary legatee, received $15,868,926 from the estate. Other bequests included $20,000 each to the New York Foundling Hospital, Hebrew Orphan Asylum, Montefiore Hospital, Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic S##ieties, Salvation Army and Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York and $10,000 to Temple Emanu-El.
The will explained that the Altman Foundation was receiving the residuary bequest, and that the foundation and B. Altman & Co. were able to care for the Altman employes, but that $20,000 was left to the Mutual Benefit Association of the Employes of B. Altman & Co. “as a taken of my interest in the affairs of the employes.”
The $2,500,000 gift to the Metropolitan Museum included notable items out of a collection of 135 paintings and 200 other works of art.
The gifts to the Brooklyn Museum of Arts and Sciences included bronze and marble statuary, furniture, tapestries, Chinese porcelains and other objects, as well as portraits by El Greco, Velasquez, Lawrence, Tintoretto and Bellini.
The bulk of the estate was given to charities and institutions, and accordingly not taxable, no valuation was made of any of the individual works of art. New York State will collect a tax on only $964,474.
Deputy Tax Commissioner Manikoff fixed a valuation of $15,368,994 for Colonel Friedsam’s securities, the bulk of which consisted of 125,000 shares of the Delion Corporation, formed by him as a holding company for his securities. This stock was appraised at $12,126,375. It represented several hundred items, mainly of high-grade bonds and a few preferred stocks.
Because of the decline in market values, the shrinkage in the securities held by the Delion Corporation is estimated at more than 50 per cent. The company held $11,396,305 in bonds and $1,661,018 in stocks.
Colonel Friedsam’s stock in B. Altman & Co. was appraised on a total valuation of $25,121,401 for all of the company’s shares.
The estate was reduced by funeral and administration expenses of $1,058,884 and debts of $145,901, which included $75,000 due to B. Altman & Co. Colonel Friedsam held notes amounting to $1,172,358.
John S. Burke, now president of B. Altman & Co.; Clarence E. Wood and Edwin J. Steiner, as executors, received commissions of $1,084.758. In addition. Mr. Burke received $50,000 in cash, 5,000 shares of Altman stock and jewelry worth $1,500, and Mr. Wood received the George Inness painting, “Delaware Water Gap,” appraised al $15,000, and jewelry worth $1,000. Mr. Steiner, brother-in-law of Colonel Friedsam, also received $25,000.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
