Mary Max

Ms. Max was found dead of an apparent suicide in her Upper West Side apartment at Riverside Drive and 84th Street at about 8:30 p.m. on Sunday June 9 2019. The exact cause of death is under investigation by the office of the chief medical examiner. For the past several years, Ms. Max had been embroiled in a vitriolic legal dispute over her husband’s art, wealth and legacy, as he has struggled with increasing dementia. But in her final voice message to her friend, said her lawyer, John Markham, she did not rehash that dispute. Instead, he said, she left farewell messages for people she loved: her husband; her closest friends; her brother, Daniel; and her 94-year-old mother, Ruth. The death of Ms. Max, 52, in the home she shared with Mr. Max, 81, comes in the midst of continued infighting in recent years regarding her husband’s legacy. Mary Max, nee Balkin, was born on Oct. 20, 1966, and raised in Buffalo, N.Y. In 1996, she was walking on a Manhattan sidewalk, when Mr. Max, already an internationally renowned artist and 30 years her senior, walked up and said, “Hi, I’m Peter Max, and I’ve been painting your profile my entire life.” They married a year later. Mr. Max had two children from a first marriage, Adam Cosmo and Libra Astro. The children had significant shares in Mr. Max’s studio, which is named ALP after his and their first names. He and Mary Max had no children together.