Farrah Fawcett has been at the center of a legal battle this year regarding a portrait of her famous likeness done by Andy Warhol; now, the man she spent several years of her life with has his chance to speak about the artwork–which he says was given to him by Fawcett–and about their notoriously rocky relationship.
The trouble began when the University of Texas at Austin–Fawcett’s alma mater and the recipient of all her artwork after her 2009 death, as outlined in her will–accused O’Neal of taking the expensive piece of art when it didn’t belong to him. Because they were bequeathed Fawcett’s collection, they say, they are the rightful owners. However, O’Neal says he took it from Fawcett’s home about a week after her death because he’d asked her to hold onto it for him after he’d already been in possession of it for years.
“The reason I gave it to her is because there was a new woman in my life and the painting was making her uncomfortable; that Farrah seemed to be staring down at her,” O’Neal said in a deposition in August 2012. “And so I said, ‘Well, I can fix that.’ I took it to Farrah and said ‘Keep this for me. I’ll be back.’”
The woman in question was a young lady who was caught in bed with O’Neal by none other than Fawcett herself; the couple later reconciled after she forgave him, O’Neal says.
The “Love Story” actor testified on Monday that Warhol was a friend of his and that both he and Fawcett took prints from the artist when they were done. Her copy hangs in the university’s Blanton Museum of Art; O’Neal says he wants to keep the one he has to pass on to his son with Fawcett, Redmond.
Image: Wikimedia Commons