Jury: Ryan O'Neal Can Keep Disputed Farrah Fawcett Portrait

By City News Service

Actor Ryan O'Neal is the rightful owner of a disputed Andy Warhol portrait of Farrah Fawcett, a Los Angeles Superior Court jury decided Thursday, despite claims by the University of Texas at Austin that the painting belongs to the college.

The six-man, six-woman jury deliberated for about two days before ruling in favor of O'Neal, who was Fawcett's longtime on-again, off-again companion and resides in Malibu. 

O'Neal insisted the Warhol piece was given to him as a gift by the artist, and Fawcett and her friends knew he was the owner when she died of cancer in 2009.

Fawcett bequeathed all of her original artwork, as well as a second Warhol portrait of the actress, also created by the late artist in 1980, to the university that the Texas-born beauty attended for several years in the 1960s, until her acting career took off.

David Beck, an attorney for the university, argued that the "Charlie's Angels" star wanted UT to have both Warhols.

"Farrah said what she wanted done, and Ryan O'Neal can't change that today," Beck told jurors during his closing argument. The university has one of the portraits on display, but wanted to obtain the second one from O'Neal to display next to it.

O'Neal, 72, has the disputed painting hanging in the bedroom of his Malibu beach house.

O'Neal attorney Marty Singer said the university was acting out of greed in its bid to obtain the second portrait. Singer said the painting is worth about $800,000 to $1 million. The figure is far below the estimated $12 million value given the painting by a UT-hired appraiser who testified during the trial.

The school sued O'Neal in August 2011, after the disputed Warhol portrait of the Oscar-nominated actor's longtime love was seen in his home during an episode of the reality TV show "Ryan and Tatum: The O'Neals."

O'Neal says Warhol gave the painting to him. But lawyers for the university maintain the portrait is school property because Fawcett agreed through her living trust to donate all her artwork to the university.