Sir Rudolf Bing disappears

Press, 30 May 1987, Page 10

Sir Rudolf Bing disappears

NZPA-PA London The former opera impresario, Sir Rudolf Bing, has disappeared. Sir Rudolf, reported to be suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, a degenerative brain condition, vanished on Thursday morning in London after going to buy cigarettes.

Sir Rudolf, who is 85, was staying at a hotel in Camden with his wife of five months, Carroll, aged 47. He left the hotel at 10.30 a.m. saying he was l>oing to a local shop and lias not been seen since. Lady Bing alerted police immediately. The couple arrived at the bed-and-breakfast hotel 11 days ago. They were reported to be in London for Sir Rudolf to

see a specialist. On Monday he was seen walking hand-in-hand with his wife at the Barbican arts centre. The couple fled from their honeymoon in the Caribbean earlier this year to West Yorkshire, where they went to live rent-free in a motel owned by an opera lover.

A United States court has ordered Lady Bing to return her husband to New York by June 3 or face a $NZ87,300 fine for contempt of Court. Sir Rudolf’s $NZ1,746,000 estate has been frozen after a judge ruled that he was incompetent to manage his own affairs. Permission has also been granted in the United States Supreme Court to seek an annul-

ment of his marriage on the ground that he is not fully aware of his circumstances. In a recent television interview Sir Rudolf said he was fully aware of his marriage and liked it. Asked what he thought of attempts in New York to annul the marrige, he said: “Not much. It is my

business whom I marry.” Sir Rudolf was director of the Metropolitan Opera in New York for 22 years. He is a former director of the Glyndebourne Opera and founder of the Edinburgh Festival, and was knighted for his services to British music. His wife, formerly Carroll Douglass, who had been married twice before, is a former geriatric nurse.