Christophe de Menil

Marie-Christophe de Menil (February 5, 1933 – August 5, 2025) was an American heiress, debutante, costume designer and philanthropist. An heiress to the Schlumberger fortune, de Menil also followed in her parents' footsteps to become an art collector. Additionally, for two decades, she was the costume designer for the theater director Robert Wilson. De Menil promoted numerous artists, architects, and designers, including John Cage, Frank Gehry, Willem de Kooning, and Twyla Tharp.

Biography Early life Marie-Christophe de Menil was born to an upper class family in Paris, France, on February 5, 1933. In 1971, she married Chilean artist Enrique Castro-Cid, but they divorced in 1974.

In December 2014, de Menil auctioned off a number of objects she had acquired over the years through the online auction house Paddle8. Items auctioned included jewelry she designed, attenuated chairs from the 1976 production of Einstein on the Beach, a drawing by Doug Wheeler, and a rare two-part sofa by Charles James.

In 2021, her nurse Alina Morini claimed that de Menil's daughter, Taya, "forced" her mother to live in isolation and attempted to have Morini "falsely arrested" for trespassing when she attempted to nurse de Menil.

De Menil died at home in Manhattan on August 5, 2025, at the age of 92, bedridden from arthritis.