Business Finance Media Technology Policy Wealth Insights Interviews

Art Art Fairs Art Market Art Reviews Auctions Galleries Museums Interviews

Lifestyle Nightlife & Dining Style Travel Interviews

Power Lists Nightlife & Dining Art A.I. PR

About About Observer Advertise With Us Reprints

Bad Planning Leaves Many Artist Estates Tangled in Lawsuits

But there are steps artists can take in life to map out and protect their legacies after death.

(Editor’s note: This article was originally published on June 4, 2018.) The end of a famous artist’s life might be thought of as a time of tributes and celebration, but not for Robert Indiana, who was beloved for his 1965 image of the stacked letters L-O-V-E. He died at his island home in Vinalhaven, Maine, on May 19, just a few months short of his 90th birthday, embroiled in a legal battle over his iconic works of art. Just a week before his death, a lawsuit was filed by the artist’s agent, the Morgan Art Foundation, against his studio manager, Jamie L. Thomas. It also named a company in its suit, the New York-based American Art Image, which Thomas allowed to produce allegedly unauthorized editions of the artist’s work. American Art Image is accused of copyright and trademark infringement.

Sign Up For Our Daily Newsletter

Thank you for signing up!

By clicking submit, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge we may use your information to send you emails, product samples, and promotions on this website and other properties. You can opt out anytime.

Indiana, described in the lawsuit as “bedridden and infirm,” and intentionally isolated by Thomas, had a new will drawn up in 2016, superseding a 2013 will that turned over power of attorney to Thomas. “It is our contention that Indiana was in poor health, and he had a difficult time reading,” said Luke Nikas, partner in the New York law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan that is representing the Morgan Art Foundation. “He was not aware that he had assigned power of attorney and not mentally competent.” They allege he was unable to provide informed consent to what was being done in his name.

And what might that include? Fraud, they say, and potentially even forgery. And it has lent an air of suspicion to the artist’s passing. Shortly after Indiana’s death, an FBI agent arrived on the island to investigate, ordering an autopsy, the results of which have not been made public. What a mess…though it’s one we see repeated again and again when artists die. The reason there are so many legal disputes over artists’ legacies, though, is due to a number of complex and interwoven problems.

When there’s no will… or too many

Life can be messy and chaotic before you die, and death doesn’t do any tidying up. Pablo Picasso, for instance, did not leave a will, but he did leave behind a crazy-quilt assortment of children, grandchildren and ex-lovers who spent the six years after he died in 1973, and a combined $30 million, settling the issue of who gets what. Tens of thousands of artworks waited in limbo while the courts straightened things out.

Painter Thomas Kinkade, on the other hand, appeared to leave behind two wills when he died unexpectedly in 2012 after overdosing on alcohol and Valium. One will appeared to favor his estranged wife and children and another, hand-written and signed shortly before his death, favored his current girlfriend. Each will identified who would get his mansion and control over his paintings. More work for lawyers. (They reached a settlement, the details of which have not been disclosed, in December 2012.)

A will identifies what the deceased person intended with his or her assets, making the disposition of property orderly and often with an eye toward reducing or eliminating the payment of estate taxes. When someone dies intestate—without a will—state intestacy laws take over, determining how one’s property, which includes all securities, bank accounts and real estate, is distributed and to whom. Whatever intentions the dead person might have said they had for these........

© Observer