Ghosts, fakes and frauds

A feud sparked by troublesome ghosts, non-payment of rent, and an international legal battle that ranged from London to Paris before ending with the exposure of paintings accepted as genuine by Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael being exposed as fakes.

Welcome once again to the mad word of Lady Valerie Meux.

Lady Meux, of Theobalds Park, Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, bought the nearby Whitewebbs Estate, Enfield, in March 1900. 

Whitewebbs, about fifteen miles from the centre of London, stood in about forty acres of park and woodlands. The house, dating from 1787, was a long white building with about forty rooms, including servants’ quarters. A generator provided lighting and pumped water. The gardens were beautiful, and there was an ornamental lake at the back of the house.

It is thought Lady Meux planned to merge Whitewebbs and Theobalds into one huge estate. This never happened. Instead, Lady Meux rented out Whitewebbs. From 1902 to 1906, the tenant was the American millionaire Frank Lacroix Gardner. He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1853. He might be described as a ‘shady’ character. He married three times. Other sources say four. He may even have divorced wives before remarrying.

In 1875, Gardner married Annie (Anna) Graham in Philadelphia. He worked as a theatrical promoter in his home town, and later in New York and California. He met Carrie Swain, born Caroline Wisler (1860-1944), known as a lady acrobatic song and dance artist. Together they toured Australia in 1886 where Gardner chanced his arm as a mining speculator. What had happened to his first wife at this stage is not quite clear.

Seemingly, Gardner made a fortune but was later investigated for allegations of mining fraud and stock manipulation.

Gardner moved to London, where he worked mining promoter and financial adviser. Around 1902, he was in Paris, where he co-founded the car firm Gardner-Serpollet Automobiles à Vapeur, a manufacturer of steam-powered cars.

He also married into French society.

Gardner always seems to be involved in lawsuits over various business dealings and romantic associations, including Carrie Swain. In a 1905 Paris lawsuit, she claimed they had married in San Francisco in 1886 while Gardner was still married to his first wife. In Australia, they had invested in a mining operation and made a fortune. Carrie wanted her share of the money.

In 1907, Gardner was in the newspapers again when a London court ordered him to repay £827,000 - an enormous sum at the time - to a wealthy Spanish widow living in Paris whom he had defrauded.

While in London when Gardner decided he wanted a country home. He rented Whitewebbs from Lady Meux. How they met is not known but one suspects there was a theatrical or horse racing  connection.

Towards the end of 1906, it seems Gardner decided that the rent was too high and decided not to pay any longer.

Lady Meux was not pleased and immediately started legal proceedings.

The excuse Gardner gave the London law courts for not paying his rent was bizarre. He said the house was haunted and the ghosts would not let him sleep at night. In fact, he said he should be paid for living in a haunted house.

The court, perhaps not surprisingly, ruled that Gardner must pay the outstanding rent, the sum of $6,000. Today, that is about £150,000.

Gardner now started on a series of delaying tactics. His home was, he said, not in London but in Paris and therefore the claim against him must be made in the French courts.

Lady Meux obliged and started legal proceedings against him in Paris. When the case came before the courts, Gardner now said he did not live in Paris but in London. The court did not believe him and he was once again ordered to pay the outstanding rent. Gardner now claimed he was a bankrupt and could not be made to pay the rent or the cost of the court case.

In fact, Gardner had been through a bankruptcy hearing at Trouville. But it was also known that his wife, formerly Mademoiselle Legay and who had also lived at Whitewebbs, was very wealthy and had many valuable assets, including a picture gallery, at the Gardner Mansion on a five acre plot in the La Villette district of Paris. Gardner had spent years and a fortune collecting. These included German artist Winterhalter’s portraits of Napoleon and Eugenie; works by the Spanish Baroque master Murrillo; Italian Renaissance artist Titian; and French landscape and portrait painter Corot. 

Speculation put the value of this collection was put at £400,000

Why, asked the court, should some of these paintings these not be sold in order to pay the debt? And so judgement was made.

In order to execute this ruling, Lady Meux despatched an expert to examine the Gardner paintings. His report was extraordinary: many of the paintings supposed to make up the collection were missing and others were bogus, including a Madonna and Child attributed to Raphael. It was not even school of Raphael and had little or no real value.

There was also a Leonardo da Vinci. This, said the expert, was so bad Leonardo could not have painted it. It had no value.

There was nothing that would satisfy the court’s judgement. Lady Meux now asked for the Gardner Manion’s lease in compensation. But that was also in Mrs Gardner’s name. 

With Lady Meux’s death at the end of 1910, it seems the battle for her rent arrears came to an end.

Frank Lacroix Gardner lived happily ever after and died in Paris in 1930. Some sources state he left an estate with a modern-day value of US$31,000,000.

Frank Lacroix Gardner

Whitewebbs House today, currently a Toby Carvery

Sources: Pam, David, A History of Enfield, Volume Two - 1837 to 1914, A Victorian Suburb, Enfield Preservation Society 1992; The Nashville Tennessean and The Nashville American, Sunday, 27th November, 1910; The Washington Post, Sunday, 25th December 1910; The Oakland Tribune, 27th November 1910; National Portrait Gallery.