Just a little UT news.
July 9, 2011: “UT sues actor Ryan O’Neal for Farrah Fawcett portrait done by Andy Warhol”
An iconic artist’s portrait of an iconic actress hangs in the Blanton Museum of Art on the University of Texas campus, while its near-twin apparently hangs in a house in Malibu, Calif.
On Friday, the university went to court in an effort to seize the one in Malibu, which, like the Blanton’s, is a paint and silk-screen portrait by Andy Warhol of the late actress Farrah Fawcett.
A lawsuit filed by the UT System Board of Regents on behalf of the university in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles contends that Fawcett bequeathed both portraits to the university but that actor Ryan O’Neal “has wrongfully converted” one of them — legal language for the civil equivalent of stealing.
The university wants a jury to order him to turn it over.
O’Neal’s publicist has said that the portrait was given to O’Neal by Fawcett and that he owes nothing to the university. O’Neal and Fawcett were longtime companions; they had a child together, and O’Neal was at Fawcett’s side when she died of cancer in 2009 at the age of 62.
UT’s suit says Fawcett’s trust specified that “all of (her) artwork and any objects of art” would go to the university upon her death. O’Neal may have “converted” other works of art from her collection, according to the suit.
“Obviously, the Warhol is the big-ticket item,” said Barry Burgdorf, vice chancellor and general counsel for the UT System, which hired a private investigator as part of its effort to track down the portrait. “We think it’s quite valuable, but how valuable is hard to say.”.............
http://www.statesman.com/news/local/ut-sues-actor-ryan-oneal-for-farrah-fawcett-1593662.html