University Says It Needs Ryan O'Neal's Andy Warhol Portrait

By City News Service

Ryan O'Neal's refusal to turn over one of two portraits of actress Farrah Fawcett to the University of Texas at Austin has deprived visitors to its art museum of the opportunity to compare the two pieces created by Andy Warhol, an executive with the school testified Friday.

UT's Blanton Museum of Art has one of the Fawcett portraits sketched by Warhol in 1980 on permanent display, and the university would like to hang the one in O'Neal's possession alongside it so that observers can examine how they differ right down to the canvases on which they are drawn, the witness said.

"By not having all of it, we are not able to do that," said Randa Safady, UT's vice chancellor for external relations.

The school sued O'Neal, now 72, in August 2011, after the disputed Warhol portrait of the actor's longtime love was seen in his Malibu home during an episode of the reality TV show "Ryan and Tatum: The O'Neals."

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, which she attended for three years in the 1960s.

Fawcett, who left the school before graduating when her acting career took off, died of cancer in June 2009 at the age of 62.

The six-man, six-woman jury also will decide whether a Warhol napkin drawing that O'Neal is demanding from the school through his cross-complaint belongs to him or the university.

Safady said philanthropic donations from alumni such as Fawcett are vital to schools such as the University of Texas because they supplement tuition and state funding.

"They are the lifeblood of an institution," she said.

The Fawcett portrait at the school has drawn thousands of visitors to the Blanton Museum and is one of the 110 most favorite items out of more than 17,000 pieces of artwork on display, said Safady, who has helped lead the school's fight to obtain the other Fawcett portrait.

"It's a very popular piece," she said.

Safady said she learned in March 2010 from the university's then-general counsel that there might be a second Warhol portrait of Fawcett. The assumption was confirmed when she and other school officials saw it on the reality show, Safady said.

Asked by UT attorney David Beck whether she consented to O'Neal having the other painting, she replied, "No, I did not."

Cross-examined by O'Neal's attorney, Martin Singer, Safady said that neither the napkin drawing nor any of the pieces of art Fawcett personally created are on permanent display at the university. She said museum officials are still cataloguing the late actress' sculptures and other creations.

In other testimony today, certified public accountant Shira Nachshon said she helped Richard Francis, Fawcett's longtime business manager, wrap up the actress' affairs after her death. Francis also succeeded Fawcett as the trustee of her living trust after she died.

Nachshon said Francis gave O'Neal permission to take the other Warhol painting from Fawcett's condo, where he often spent time when not at his main residence in Malibu. She said the portrait was still in Fawcett's unit during her first visit there with Francis after the actress death, but was gone by their second time there.

"It wasn't an issue," Nachshon said. "Mr. O'Neal lived in the apartment; he doesn't need permission to go there."

Nachshon said an insurance policy from the 1980s showed O'Neal was the sole owner of the disputed portrait. Asked by UT attorney Eric Nichols about a series of policies beginning in 2006 in which Fawcett insured both portraits, the CPA said that did not mean the actress was claiming she owned the two sketches.

"She wanted to make sure they were insured because they were physically in her condo," Nachshon said.

O'Neal, originally scheduled to testify today, will be the first witness when the trial resumes Monday. Singer told Judge William MacLaughlin that his client, who has leukemia, tires as the day goes on and preferred to testify in the morning.