Philanthropist and high society fixture Lily Safra has died in Geneva, Switzerland, at age 87.
Safra became a fixture of New York society after her fourth and final marriage in 1976 to banker Edmond J. Safra, to whom she stayed married until his 1999 death in a mysterious and controversial arson fire in Monaco that attracted significant media coverage because of his wealth. One of Safra’s nurses was convicted of starting the fire. Safra left half his fortune to charities while Lily Safra reportedly inherited $800 million.
At the 2004 Sidaction AIDS benefit dinner, she was spotted in conversation with Karl Lagerfeld and Lady Amanda Harlech. In 2012, she put her jewelry collection, with a sizeable section devoted to the jeweler JAR and a 32-carat ruby ring by Chaumet, up for auction at Christie’s Geneva. After the 2019 fire that devastated the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, Safra pledged 10 million euros for its restoration.