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University suing Ryan O’Neal over Warhol portrait of Farrah Fawcett

Actress left her art to the school; her ownership of portrait is not certain

The Columbian
Published: November 9, 2013, 4:00pm

AUSTIN, Texas — Hollywood stars, living and dead. A portrait of an iconic actress by an iconic artist. A possible love triangle involving a former University of Texas football player.

These are among the ingredients of a civil trial set to begin Wednesday in Los Angeles in which the University of Texas will face off against actor Ryan O’Neal.

The university has sued O’Neal in an effort to force him to turn over an Andy Warhol portrait of the late actress Farrah Fawcett, who bequeathed her art collection to her alma mater. A jury will have to decide who owned the portrait: Fawcett, in which case the university gets it, or O’Neal, in which case it can remain in his Malibu beach house.

“It’s going to be an interesting and fun case to try,” said David Beck, a lawyer for the university. “I’m looking forward to it.”

Warhol produced two nearly identical paint-and-silk-screen portraits of Fawcett in 1980. The university contends that Warhol gave both to Fawcett. O’Neal says the artist, who died in 1987, gave one to him and one to her.

At the time of Fawcett’s death from cancer in 2009, both hung on the walls of her Wilshire Boulevard condominium in Los Angeles. One now hangs in the University of Texas’ Blanton Museum of Art. O’Neal, who was at her side when she died, took possession of the near-twin with permission of the overseer of Fawcett’s trust.

Warhol was one of the most recognized artists of the 20th century.

Fawcett, a native of Corpus Christi, Texas, trained as an artist at the University of Texas, although she didn’t graduate. She rose to television and silver-screen fame in the 1970s with commercials, pin-up posters, a starring role in the “Charlie’s Angels” TV series and in movies.

O’Neal starred in the 1960s TV soap opera “Peyton Place,” as well as in such movies as “Love Story.”

Judge Ernest Hiroshige of the state Superior Court in Los Angeles will decide whether to grant the university’s request to bar any mention of two drug-related felony convictions, in 1972 and 1982, of one of its key witnesses, Greg Lott, who played quarterback and wingback for the Longhorns. References to Lott’s decades-old “mistakes” could “unduly prejudice” the jury against him, the university claims.

The university says in court papers that Lott and Fawcett had a romantic relationship while they were in college and again from 1998 until she died.

O’Neal’s lawyers say the actor and Fawcett were romantically involved for 30 years up to her death. Not surprisingly, the dueling claims and the possibility of a love triangle have been rich fodder for Hollywood gossip sheets.

As for the disputed portrait, O’Neal’s lawyers acknowledge in court papers that it was displayed at Fawcett’s residence for long periods over the years, “in part to protect it from the ocean air at Malibu.” But it was “usually displayed” at O’Neal’s beach house, they say.

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