[MSN] Brothers' feud over Rockwell paintings persists

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Brothers' feud over Rockwell paintings persists
By Charles Bonenti, Berkshire Eagle Staff

Sunday, December 31
STOCKBRIDGE — A family fight is simmering behind some of the most famous Norman Rockwell paintings hanging in his namesake museum here.

The epic legal battles among the sons of Kenneth J. Stuart, the longtime art director of The Saturday Evening Post, who died in 1993, were disclosed in a New York Times story late last week.

Stuart took possession of more than a dozen Rockwell paintings during his 20 years at The Post — including "The Gossips," "Walking to Church" and "Saying Grace," all of which have been on loan to the Norman Rockwell Museum for years.

When he died, he left everything, including the paintings, to his three sons — Ken Jr., William and Jonathan — in equal shares, the Times article said.

But two of the brothers, William and Jonathan, have spent 13 years fighting in court against their older brother, Ken Jr., saying that he took advantage of their ailing father, forcing him to sign papers to gain control of the entire fortune.

The younger Stuarts charge that Ken Jr., who has been self-employed since 1991, used estate assets to enrich himself at their expense.

A judge ruled heavily in Jonathan and William's favor in 2004, but Ken Jr. has appealed. He contends the money he took was "for services rendered" and has also filed for bankruptcy protection. The only way his brothers will get paid, he says, is by selling the paintings, which they are resisting.

The Times article put the value of the three paintings at $25 million, but a single Rockwell artwork, "Breaking Home Ties," sold last month for $15.4 million, a record for the artist.

A sale to a private collector might mean removal of the paintings from the Rockwell museum, a possibility that director Laurie Norton Moffatt said always exists when artworks are on loan.

"Any collector who has work on loan can remove it any time," she said yesterday.

Moffatt said the Rockwell museum is not involved in the Stuart family squabble and that confidentiality agreements prevent her from discussing terms of their loan.

She did say the Stuart-owned paintings have been hanging in the museum for years and are among the most popular Rockwells on view.

Last month, heirs of the owner of "Breaking Home Ties," a fake version of which had been unknowingly exhibited for years at the Rockwell museum, had the original auctioned by Sotheby's for a record $15.4 million. The ruse wasn't discovered until the family found the original hidden behind a wall in the owner's Vermont farmhouse after his death last year.

Moffatt said she still doesn't know who the buyer was, but is certain the name will come out eventually.

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