Merton Simpson, the painter and influential collector of African art, was buried on Saturday in his hometown, Charleston, S.C., three weeks after his death at 84. The delay stemmed from bitter infighting among his family, friends and a court-appointed guardian.
Although Mr. Simpson left a vast collection of art that some have estimated to be worth millions, the family said it did not have the resources to pay for a proper burial. His eldest son, Merton Simpson Jr., sent an e-mail blast after his father’s death on March 9, asking for contributions to a burial fund and setting up a PayPal account to accept donations. He had accused Ann Pinciss Berman, a guardian who had been given control of his father’s affairs during the last year of his life, of refusing to authorize sufficient funding for a burial. Ms. Berman, who said that only $3,000 was available for funeral, credited the Artist’s Fellowship, a program run by the nonprofit South Carolina Arts Commission, with coming up with an emergency grant of about $7,200 to pay for a grave site and burial in a Catholic cemetery chosen by Merton Simpson Jr.
After an article appeared in The New York Times about the lack of money, Ms. Berman and Bernard Fielding, the president of Fielding Homes for Funerals in Charleston, where Mr. Simpson’s embalmed body was stored, both said they received numerous inquiries from people willing to donate.
