Princess Lwoff-Parlaghy Out of Plaza, Art Objects Held

Leaves Luxurious Apartment and Hopes by Painting Portraits to Pay Hotel.

Princess Lwoff-Parlaghy, who for the last few years has been living at the Plaza, surrounded by an entourage of servants that included three butlers, maids, waiters, a private physician and special representative, it was learned yesterday, has left the Plaza and is living with a friend in an apartment in Riverside Drive. The Princess, who is an artist of no mean talent, has left the greater part of the pictures she has painted, together with her valuable bronzes, tapestries, potteries and ecclesiastical hangings, in the possession of the management of the Plaza. There seems to be a question of the non-payment of a bill to the amount of about $12,000.

It was admitted by the management of the Plaza that the pictures and other valuables of the Princess had been appraised as worth more than $100,000. She has devoted much of her time to painting since she was a young girl, and among the pictures now in possession of the Plaza is one she painted of the Kaiser, seated in a Catherine de Medici chair. In fact, the Princess once asserted to a Herald reporter that it was after a talk with the German Emperor that she decided to come to the United States and paint the portraits of prominent men.

It was learned last night from J. Campbell Thompson, attorney for Durland’s Riding Academy, that the Princess owed the riding academy $1,000 for the board of three horses, on which a sheriff’s attachment was obtained about three weeks ago.

Income $80,000 a Year.

To the Plaza the Princess has been a mystery. When she first went there she lived with all the comforts wealth could procure. Her income was then said to be more than $80,000 a year, and she declared that she owned the Château St. Jean, between Nice and Monte Carlo, on the Riviera. But in the last twelve months it has not been apparent that the Princess’ income has been so large, and gradually she has dismissed part of her retinue of servants. For the last three months she has not been seen with her uniformed bodyguard, who appeared in the gray-green garb of an Austrian hunter.

The fact that the Princess did not keep up her payments to the Plaza led to her giving up rooms in her suite, which faced the lake. Since the war started she lived less and less like a princess.

When it was learned at the Plaza that the other rooms occupied by the Princess, her private physician and Frederick M. Delius, her personal representative, were needed by the hotel management she was informed that part of the bill at least would have to be paid. According to those in charge at the Plaza the Princess declared that she was anxious to settle the debt. She is said to have declared she thought it would be better if she could for the time being take a less expensive dwelling where she could paint, and that, with money she hoped to get from abroad, she could in due time be able to liquidate the debt.

Paintings Appraised.

Frederic Sterry, managing director of the Plaza, denied that the Princess had been asked for her apartment, although he admitted that she owed several thousand dollars. From other sources it was learned that about six months ago the management of the Plaza called in an expert to appraise the valuables and paintings in the Princess’ apartment.

After the appraisal the directors of the Realty Company, which owns the operating company of the Plaza, were thoroughly satisfied that the money realized would far more than pay the indebtedness of the Princess. However, it is understood that the Plaza management will give the Princess a few weeks, and if in that time she is not able to pay the greater part of the bill her paintings and art objects may be sold at auction.

Mr. Sterry, Mr. Thompson, attorney for Durland’s, and the assistant managers of the Plaza declared last night that they were ignorant of the present whereabouts of the Princess. It was said that Charles M. Whitney, who has an office in the Woolworth Building, acted as her legal representative in the Durland proceedings. His name was also mentioned in the Plaza as the Princess’ attorney. From one man who has known the Princess it was gleaned that he thought she was now living with a Mrs. Knight in an apartment in Riverside Drive. Mr. Thompson was surprised when he was told that the Princess was no longer at the Plaza.

In the times when the Princess knew not what debt was and dwelt like a royal personage her bills were always paid in cash. She often took to the cashier’s desk in the Plaza three one thousand dollar bills to pay what she owed. Her apartment was especially redecorated to suit her taste. One room was devoted to her potteries, of which she was very proud, and two large rooms were used by her for studio purposes. In the latter rooms were portraits of prominent men of this country she had painted, among whom were Messrs. August Belmont, Seth Low, Hudson Maxim, Whitelaw Reid, Edwin Markham, Nicola Tesla and General Daniel E. Sickles.

More Treasured Paintings.

In a room in which the more treasured paintings of the Princess were hung were the pictures of Emperor William of Germany, Count von Moltke, Prince Bismarck, the Grand Duke of Baden, the Marquis de Beauvoir and others. It was the pride of the Princess that she had painted these men in a Catherine de Medici chair, which she kept in the larger room of her apartment.

It was in June, 1913, with Alton B. Parker as her counsel, that she sued James B. Haggin for $25,000 for painting a picture of him. He said he had understood the painting was not to cost more than $10,000. The Princess told a Herald reporter that this work of art was worth so much more because it had necessarily to be a larger canvas and also that Mr. Haggin had been specially posed in the Catherine de Medici chair, the very same chair, she said, in which the Kaiser had sat for his picture.

Her antiques the Princess at that time declared to be worth $3,000,000. It was then that she said it cost her $80,000 a year to live. In talking of this she held in her hand a Palissy ornament which she asserted was valued at $50,000. She often wore a regal costume of green and gold to set off her Titian hair.

On a very hot day she had a habit of signing to her private physician to bring in something, and that something was a glass of mineral water. But it was not the water, the hot day, the ruby red glass set in the finely made brass holder on the hammered platter, that impressed one. It was the fact that the platter with the ruby red glass was held high by the physician as he brought it into the room, and that he lowered it with careful slowness before the thirsty one was permitted to drink.

It was in November of last year that the Princess announced through Mr. Delius, her personal representative, that she was going to practically give up living in her Château St. Jean, in Nice, and that therefore she had purchased an estate known as Deer Park, at Haines Falls, N. Y. She declared it was her intention to make of Deer Park a miniature St. Moritz, and that she was going to give great parties to which many prominent persons would be invited.