-39-
While Polachek suggested that these tables were of minimal dollar
value, we find it more likely that these assets had a significant
dollar value in light of the decedent’s wealth, lifestyle, and
desire to own (and be seen as owning) only the best of
everything. In fact, the value of these four assets caused
Polachek to expend her time, effort, and money to transport them
from the decedent’s home in Southern California to her home in
Northern California.17 Given our added understanding of the
location and value of the decedent’s home,18 as well as the fact
that he was a flamboyant individual who filled his home
extensively with the finest, most beautiful, and most valuable
pieces of art, artifacts, gemstones, and jewelry (as well as a
noteworthy collection of music recordings), we simply do not see
the decedent sparing an expense when it came to furnishing his
home with tables and other furniture. Such is especially so
given that the decedent regularly entertained at his home, that
he purchased at least some of his home’s furniture from the Fifth
17 The estate has not established that Polachek transported
any of these four assets to her home for sentimental reasons. In
fact, the record leads us to a contrary conclusion.
18 The decedent owned a four-bedroom, 3,928 square-foot
one-story home in Thousand Oaks, California. It was sited on
approximately one acre of land and, when built in 1975, had two
two-car garages and a double car port. (The decedent when he
died owned a 1992 Lexus four-door sedan and a 1991 Jeep Cherokee
four-wheel drive, the blue book values of which were $28,500 and
$19,050 as of the date of his death.) The decedent for purposes
of Schiffer’s statement had valued his home at just over $1
million.
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