A judge has said Auf wiedersehen to a Manhattan couple’s prenup because it was written in German and the wife didn’t understand she was giving up all rights to her hubby’s vast fortune.
Art gallery owner Nathalie Karg claimed her husband Anton Kern’s powerful parents tricked her into signing the deal by telling her it barred only claims to their own money.
The papers were presented by her in-laws — famed painter Georg Kern Baselitz and his wife, Elke — during a 1997 trip to their home at the medieval Castle Derneburg, outside Hanover, Germany.
Karg said Anton Kern and his parents insisted they only wanted to protect their own assets, such as the castle.
“My parents are excited [about the marriage], but you are not getting the castle,” Anton Kern allegedly joked before she signed the papers.
But after she filed for divorce in 2012, Karg discovered the prenuptial agreement actually forfeited her rights to her husband’s own fortune, estimated at tens of millions of dollars.
Georg Baselitz, whose work is exhibited at MoMA and the Guggenheim, said in a Manhattan court hearing that he never offered to provide the Swiss-born Karg a written translation of the agreement.
He also said he “was not concerned with whether or not [Karg] understood or did not understand German.”
Manhattan Supreme Court Special Referee Sue Ann Hoahng, however, tossed out the prenup and said she believes Karg’s understanding was crucial, according to court papers obtained Thursday.
“While it is clear plaintiff is a savvy business woman, independent and strong-willed. It does not contradict the fact that she trusted, relied on and believed her fiancé when he translated the meaning of the agreement as being, ‘You are waiving all rights to his father’s wealth,’ ” Hoahng wrote.
“She had no reason not to believe him. According to both [parties], they were in love.”
Whether Karg, who now runs a gallery on Great Jones Street, will actually get a share of her hubby’s inheritance is an issue for an upcoming divorce trial.