John Ringling left his Venetian mansion and art museum to Florida and died with $311 in the bank, and the state fought his creditors for ten years

John Ringling was the last of the original Ringling brothers. From 1924 to 1926 he built Ca' d'Zan, a mansion on Sarasota Bay, for himself and his wife Mable, and next to it a museum for his Old Master paintings. In 1929 he bought the American Circus Corporation for $1.7 million, borrowing that sum and pledging half his circus stock. Mable died in June 1929. After the crash he missed an interest payment of about $18,000, and in 1932 the board voted him out of control of the circus. He married Emily Haag Buck in 1930 and divorced her in July 1936. He died on 2 December 1936, aged 70, with $311 in the bank^†. His will left Ca' d'Zan, the museum and his art collection to the people of Florida, with an endowment of $1.2 million^†, and barred any change to the museum's name. Creditors, heirs' claims and taxes kept the estate in court for ten years. The house stood empty and decayed without climate control. Florida prevailed and opened the house in 1946. Panels were later removed and rooms repainted without regard to the originals. A restoration from 1996 to 2002 cost $15 million. In 2000 the state put the museum under Florida State University. Hurricanes in 2024 flooded the basement with eight feet of water and closed Ca' d'Zan; its reopening date in 2026 is unconfirmed^†.