Fawcett's Ex-Business Manager: Actress Never Said She Owned 2 Warhol Portraits

By City News Service

Farrah Fawcett's former business manager testified Monday that the actress never said she owned the two portraits of her by Andy Warhol, including one which the University of Texas at Austin wants from Ryan O'Neal.

Richard Francis also said O'Neal, now 72, told him he owned one of the two Warhol paintings.

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

The school wants to put the O'Neal copy in a museum alongside a similar Warhol portrait of Fawcett that the artist also created in 1980 and which it obtained through the late actress' living trust.

Trial of the lawsuit is entering its third week in Los Angeles Superior Court. 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.

Francis, who became the trustee of Fawcett's living trust after her death, said O'Neal introduced him to the actress at about the time her marriage to actor Lee Majors was ending. Majors and Fawcett separated in 1979 and their divorce was finalized in 1982.

Francis said O'Neal and Fawcett had a very close relationship.

"They were practically a married couple," Francis said.

UT attorneys have presented testimony by other witnesses as well as comments by Fawcett herself from her reality show, "Chasing Farrah," to bolster their case that she believed both Warhol portraits were hers.

Cross-examined by UT lawyer Eric Nichols, Francis said Fawcett insured both Warhol sketches.

However, Richard Rogers of Rogers & Co. Insurance testified that although he issued a policy to Fawcett for coverage on both Warhol paintings, he was not concerned whether both belonged to her or not.

"I don't establish ownership, I secure coverage," Rogers said.

Rogers said Fawcett also had other policies in the 1980s and 1990s in which she insured only one Warhol portrait.

Rogers also said that his company provided a policy to O'Neal in the 1990s for a single portrait. He said the appraised value at the time was $900,000, based on the estimate of an art expert.

Lee Drexler, a New York City appraiser, told jurors Friday that the disputed Warhol painting has a current value of $12 million.

Fawcett died of cancer in June 2009 at age 62. Her living trust bequeathed most of her artwork to the UT, which she attended in the 1960s. She did not graduate.