A New Deal is a New Deal, say big-bucks donors upset that their family won’t be honored at the new FDR memorial on the southern tip of Roosevelt Island.
The Reed Foundation, run by heirs to the Fabergé perfume fortune, says the FDR memorial’s board is reneging on a contract to etch the names of Fabergé founder Samuel Rubin and his first wife, Vera, on the monument.
The foundation — which gave $2.5 million for the memorial project — sued in Manhattan Supreme Court this week to demand that the names be added before the FDR Four Freedoms Park is dedicated on Oct. 17.
After weeks of back-and-forth over the etchings, the feud came to a head last month when the memorial park’s chairman, William Vanden Heuvel, vowed in an e-mail not to succumb to the Reed Foundation’s “intimidation.”
“If they want their money back, I will raise it,” Vanden Heuvel wrote.
The suit says they just want the board to honor its agreement. The board declined to comment.