Actor Ryan O'Neal has told a US jury that he owns an Andy Warhol portrait of late actress Farrah Fawcett and it was not a secret that he had removed the artwork from her home after her death.
"The painting is mine," the Oscar-nominated actor testified on Monday during a lawsuit filed by the University of Texas at Austin to determine ownership of the portrait done in 1980.
The university claims Fawcett left the painting to the school as part of a donation of her artwork.
O'Neal said Warhol created the portrait after shooting Polaroid photos of the actress and adding splashes of colour to an otherwise monochrome canvas.
The artist created two versions of the portrait - one that currently remains over O'Neal's bed at his Malibu beach house and another that is on display at the university's Blanton Museum of Art in Austin.
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O'Neal said Warhol asked him in 1980 whether Fawcett would be interested in being the subject of a portrait and that she agreed. The actor said he requested two versions since he and Fawcett kept separate homes.
He said Warhol made the portrait within two weeks of a brief photo shoot with Fawcett in his New York studio.
"It didn't take long," O'Neal, 72, said. "Doing her hair took longer than taking the pictures."
David Beck, a lawyer for the University of Texas, challenged O'Neal, suggesting Warhol approached Fawcett directly about the portrait session during a luncheon in Houston in 1980.
Beck said there was no mention in a journal kept by O'Neal about a deal with Warhol. The actor said some of his journal from that time period had been lost.
Beck questioned whether the actor ever discussed removing the portrait with anyone, including a trustee charged with carrying out Fawcett's final wishes.
"Of course I did," O'Neal said. "I'm sure I did. It wasn't a secret."
