Nelson Bunker Hunt and William Herbert Hunt have their famous father's penchant for vagueness and nonchalance about their fortunes. As Bunker once said, "People who know how much they are worth generally aren't worth very much."
The brothers have been forced to find out how much they're worth. It's a lot less than it once was, but still amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars spread around the world, according to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court last week.There's a $19 million coin collection, a 2 million-acre Australian ranch and a nine-acre plot in north Texas, a 2,700-year-old vase and a Dallas bowling alley.
The documents detail the riches still controlled by two of H.L. Hunt's eight children. The others are not party to these bankruptcy cases, the first involving the Hunts' personal - as opposed to corporate - finances after the decline in energy prices, Herbert's and Bunker's silver speculation in 1979 and 1980 and mammoth claims by the Internal Revenue Service.
There is little question the brothers were once billionaires. One 1980 estimate placed Bunker's worth at $2.34 billion and Herbert's at $1.52 billion. Now, Bunker's filing says his assets amount to $258.83 million, Herbert's $169.38 million.
Those figures are far short of the claims against the Hunts. The IRS alone wants $730.42 million from Bunker and $317.31 million from Herbert for back taxes and interest. In all, Bunker's debts top $1.5 billion and Herbert's are almost $1.2 billion.
Both brothers dispute they owe the money, but last September they and their wives filed for protection from creditors. The case is moving through U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Harold Abramson's court and likely will end with liquidation of much of their holdings.
The documents show a picture of second-generation wealth. Although still built on their father's oil and gas holdings, it has spread to cover the largest tract of land in northern Australia; thoroughbred race horses; large pieces of valuable land in California, Arizona and Alaska; and coins and other rare artifacts.
Missing is any mention of pure silver, though government investigators claim the brothers came within weeks of cornering the world's silver market.
While the documents attempt to set out what the brothers own, they caution, "valuation of such complex and varied assets raises difficult issues upon which reasonable minds can differ."
Bunker, 63, always has been the bigger of the two brothers, both physically and monetarily.
His collection of more than 10,000 ancient Islamic, Roman and Greek coins is called "the largest and most valuable privately held collection of ancient coins in the world."
The collection, which sits in vaults at Sotheby's, is worth an estimated $19 million. Bunker also has a collection of 16 vases, from 2,700 to 2,500 years old, on exhibit at Fort Worth's Kimbell Art Museum.
The contribution of Herbert, 60, to that exhibit consists of 38 ancient bronze statues and artifacts, valued at about $3.5 million, dating from the Eighth Century to Third Century B.C.
One of Bunker's companies is Bluegrass Farm Sales Inc., which owns and leases 2 million acres of Australian farm and ranch land with an estimated value of $17.5 million.
There's also an 81,290-acre ranch that sprawls across six counties in southeastern Oklahoma valued at $11.26 million, and a 9,012-acre ranch, worth about $18.05 million, that straddles the Tennessee-Mississippi state line.
Including his $1.8 million home in suburban Dallas, and $250,000 condominium in Hawaii, his real estate holdings come to $137.88 million and are located in seven states.
There's also $23.53 million in oil and gas properties, $11.29 million of livestock and thoroughbred race horses and $52.95 million of other investments, including a $1 million, one-third share of Bronco Bowl, a 72-lane Dallas bowling alley. Herbert and brother Lamar Hunt split the other two-thirds.
Herbert owns a Byzantine coin collection that he values at $2 million. But it might fetch only $1 million if liquidated because of the limited number of collectors of Byzantine coins, the document notes.
Most of Herbert's real estate holdings are contained in partnerships with family members and longtime business associate A. Paul Stephens. Herbert's various partnerships with Stephens are valued at $66.84 million, and mostly involve Paloma Corp. developments in the Phoenix area.
Herbert's house, located in University Park, a suburb surrounded by Dallas, in the resort of Vail, Colo.
His oil and gas properties are worth an estimated $77.55 million; other real estate is valued at $23.23 million; and various other holdings worth about $2.35 million, including a $10 silver Churchill commemorative coin and a $200 gold coin money clip.