Feuding heirs, weak institutions and a mysterious will: Why didn’t the Gelman collection stay in Mexico?

Feuding heirs, weak institutions and a mysterious will: Why didn’t the Gelman collection stay in Mexico?

Natasha Gelman once had five Frida Kahlo paintings hanging in her bedroom. The most special one was a small portrait of Natasha herself, just a bust with a pensive expression and her hair pulled back. It was quite different from the one that Diego Rivera also painted of her, in which she posed in an evening gown reclining on a sofa with lush lilies in the background—a commission from her husband, Jacques Gelman, to the icon of Mexican muralism. …