Harvey Shipley Miller on left, NY Social Diary

Harvey Shipley Miller lived in a Park Avenue townhouse, received up to $200,000 a year in salary and $100,000 in travel expenses as the sole trustee of the Judith Rothschild Foundation, according to an article in today’s New York Times, found here.

The list of perks goes on. Miller donated $130,000 in foundation funds to the University of California where he created a fellowship named after himself. At MoMA, a curator’s position was named after Miller, not Rothschild, in connection with a monster drawing collection donated in 2005.

One wonders why was Miller the foundation’s sole trustee, with no apparent oversight? Whomever advised wealthy painter Judith Rothschild to structure her foundation in that fashion obviously gave her bad advice.

The Times story does a great job laying out the tale, revealing how Miller’s control over the Rothschild foundation — which included millions plus 10 Mondrians and Brancusi’s Muse — landed  him board slots and committee seats at the MET, Whitney and MoMA. (The article doesn’t explain what happened to the artworks. Do they still belong to the foundation or has Miller been selling them off to fund his foundation activities?)

The article focuses on the ways Miller, whom many sources describe as devoted and a tireless advocate for Rothschild and art, enriched himself as he disposed of Rothschild’s estate.

Last year Miller sold 118 lots of 19th and 20th century photographs at Christie’s in New York, a collection he had assembled over 20 years with a Randall Plummer. Eight-eight works sold, fetching $1.8 million.