Matthew Diebel

USATODAY

The widow of an eccentric New York City multimillionaire is fighting to gain access to her late husband's cluttered apartment so she can claim an inheritance she says is worth $18 million, according to local media.

Despite his wealth, stock trader Lewis Zagor lived in a modest rent-controlled apartment until he died at age 77 last December. According to the New York Post, he was paying just over $1,600 a month for his Park Avenue retreat, which was strewn with papers, clothes and other detritus.

But his widow, Valentina Phillips-Zagor, who lives in her own apartment on Fifth Avenue, is locked in a dispute with the landlord, who says she owes back rent.

Phillips-Zagor, 68, says she hasn't been able to access the apartment since May, when the building's management company, MSMC Residential Realty, changed the locks.

The landlord's lawyer, Benjamin Eisenberger, told the Post his client would allow Phillips-Zagor to take over her late husband's lease if she promised to actually live there and paid the rent owed, which she has refused to do.

Her attorney, Adam Leitman Bailey, told the Post his client needs access to her husband's apartment so she can gather paperwork necessary to collect the eight-figure fortune.

"You have no idea the amount of wealth that is in the apartment," Phillips-Zagor told DNAinfo New York.

"The most important are the financial documents."

As for the clutter, Phillips-Zagor blames impulse shopping. "He liked to go on a shopping spree each time he was in a bad mood," she told the website.

Most of the time, however, the purchases were never used.

"He would put the boxes one on top of the other and never open them," she said.