One of them has amassed a property empire which includes a £39 million John Nash mansion overlooking Regent’s Park. The other made do with a modest North London house, which remained uncleaned for decade after decade.
But those who assume that shark-pickler Damien Hirst has for years been Britain’s most richly remunerated artist — certainly infinitely wealthier than sculptress Phyllida Barlow — may now need to revise that assessment.
For I can disclose that Dame Phyllida, who died last year aged 78, bequeathed a fortune of no less than £91.5 million — almost every penny earned in the last 13 years of her life.
The details, revealed in probate documents, represent an extraordinary transformation for an artist, who, as one obituary recorded, ‘for decades sold nothing’ — a fact which suggested that her enthusiasm for creating ramshackle works from a magpie hoard of luridly painted junk was not widely shared.
Barlow and her husband, fellow artist Fabian Peake, who had five children, had been reduced to near poverty by the 1980s, even though Barlow had become a teacher at London’s Slade School of Fine Art.
But in 2010, a year after she’d retired at 65, an exhibition of her work was held at the Serpentine Gallery in London. It brought her critical acclaim — and attention from the Swiss gallery Hauser & Wirth, of which Princess Eugenie is now a director.
Its co-founder, Iwan Wirth, decided to visit Barlow at home. On arrival, he told his driver that they must have got the wrong address. But they hadn’t.
An exhibition followed in 2011 — as did many others, plus a commission from Tate Britain and selection to represent her country at the Venice Biennale.
Though unseen till now, the money poured in. An admiring critic likened one of her works to ‘a 30ft-high staircase constructed out of packing crates [that] leads nowhere’. Except, it transpires, to a staggering fortune — all of which Barlow left to her husband.
Jude girl’s sheer chic at Cannes
Jude Law has been the centre of attention at the Cannes Film Festival many times in the past.
This year, his daughter, Iris Law, is determined to capture the spotlight with her outfits. The 23-year-old model, whose mother is Law’s ex-wife Sadie Frost, wore a sheer Saint Laurent lace dress to the premiere of The Shrouds, a horror film starring Diane Kruger and Guy Pearce.
There was no sign of Trent Alexander-Arnold, 25, the Liverpool footballer with whom she has been pictured in London recently. They are believed to have swapped numbers after meeting at a fashion shoot last month.
The Bishop of Leeds, go-ahead Nicholas ‘Nick’ Baines, has a strange way of communing with his flock. In a parliamentary debate, His Grace discloses that he is uninterested in cricket.
‘I really need to make a confession,’ he says. ‘I live in Headingley; I have never been [to the cricket ground]. Cricket is one of those sports that I suppose some people like.
‘I have never understood it. I would rather go curling.’ Sacrilege!
Ringo bangs drum for oldies
Ringo Starr believes his fellow musical knight Mick Jagger is right not to try the patience of Rolling Stones fans by playing all of their new album on tour.
‘I promise you, any band out there, say, “I’d like to do something from my new LP” and you can feel the vibe of people going to the toilet, or going to find some T-shirts,’ says the former Beatle, 83.
Ringo is proud of his new Crooked Boy EP. But the legendary drummer promises he won’t be playing any of it when his band hits the road. ‘This, with the All Starrs, is so great because [playing the hits] is why we’re there.’
Tory grandee Sir David Davis was desperate to attend the launch party at the Carlton Club in St James’s London for Finding Margaret: Solving The Mystery Of My Birth Mother, the roller-coaster new memoir by my colleague Andrew Pierce.
‘I wouldn’t miss it for the world,’ chirped the former Conservative leadership contender. ‘It’s the first documentary proof of Andrew Pierce pursuing a woman.’
Toad trauma puts Prue off pruning
When you are 84, the physical demands of gardening can be a bit much, but for irrepressible Dame Prue Leith it was a nasty little accident in her Cotswolds garden that well and truly put her off.
‘I was digging my vegetable patch when I put a spade right through a live toad,’ she grimaces at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. ‘It upset me that I killed the thing.’
Speaking at the garden for Freedom From Torture, the charity of which she is an ambassador, the Bake Off judge concedes: ‘It would have been worse if I had killed a hedgehog.’ Not for the toad.
This is imperfect timing: locals are up in arms over plans to charge them to visit Windsor Castle for the first time — ending 200 years of tradition.
And now the Royal Collection Trust is seeking a £40,000-a-year ‘visitor services manager’ for the King’s Berkshire residence.
‘At the heart of the visitor operations team at Windsor, you’ll be responsible for ensuring every visitor has an exceptional experience,’ gushes the advert.
And dealing with the exceptional number of complaints from angry locals, no doubt…
What am I bid to dine with Hunt?
Busy Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt will have to find time to whip up dinner for a winning bidder at an auction at St Paul’s Girls’ School in West London.
The meal had better be tasty because it fetched £6,200 at the sale, where former pupil Rachel Johnson acted as auctioneer. ‘I wonder if he will cook Chinese or Japanese,’ joked LBC host Rachel, sister of former PM Boris.
Hunt, you might recall, once mistakenly referred to his Chinese-born wife, Lucia, as Japanese during a visit to Beijing when he was Foreign Secretary.
