Robert Indiana’s Estate Accuses His Caretaker of Allowing the 89-Year-Old Artist to Live in ‘Squalor’ Before He Died

In the latest twist in the
bitter legal battle over the legacy of the late sculptor Robert
Indiana, the estate’s executor has accused the artist’s
former caretaker of severe neglect. Court papers filed this week
claim that Jamie L. Thomas allowed the 89-year-old artist, who had
$13 million in the bank, to live in “squalor and filth” before his
death in May 2018.

The serious claims were made as
Thomas sues the artist’s estate in an effort to collect millions of
dollars to pay for legal fees in a separate case involving the sale
of allegedly unauthorized late works by the artist famous for his
“LOVE” sculptures.

In papers filed on Wednesday by
lawyers for the estate’s executor James W. Brannan, Thomas is accused of neglecting his caregiving
duties in the final years of Indiana’s life. Brannan also alleges
that Thomas took $1.1 million without permission and stole 118
artworks and archival materials, claiming they were gifts from the
ailing artist.

The allegations were made in a
countersuit to Thomas’s attempt to sue the estate
for $2 million, which he launched in July. The former caretaker
hopes to cover the legal fees from a different lawsuit filed
against him by the Morgan Art Foundation in New York last year. The
company, which was licensed to produce editions of Indiana’s work,
accuses Thomas of working with an art dealer to produce
unauthorized works under Indiana’s name.

“Beginning in or about 2016,
Jamie L. Thomas took advantage of Indiana’s advancing age,
isolation, frailties, and fame to develop a relationship of trust
and control over the artist,” Brannan claims in papers filed in the
Knox County Superior Court in Maine.

Thomas was in control of the
artist’s finances as well as his healthcare in the final years of
his life, when the artist was living as a
recluse on the remote
island of Vinalhaven in Maine. The artist was nearly blind and
suffering from memory loss and physical
ailments. Indiana had
$13 million in the bank, but when he died at his home, nicknamed
the Star of Hope, it had fallen into severe disrepair, and was
found to be “littered with animal feces and urine,” the court
papers say. Parts of the home—which Indiana had hoped to turn into
a museum dedicated to his life and work—were deemed uninhabitable
after being “infested” with vermin and rot due to water damage, the
lawsuit states. 

The new filing includes detailed
allegations about how Thomas came to be so closely involved in
Indiana’s business affairs. Thomas had worked as a handyman for the
artist in the 1980s and ’90s before they had some sort of dispute,
and Indiana stopped hiring him. It was not until 2013 that he
resumed working for Indiana, bringing him food and walking his dog.
He soon began to control who had access to Indiana, managing all
his emails and phone calls, according to the suit. Thomas allegedly
built up the artist’s trust to such a degree that when Indiana’s
longtime assistant and co-executor of his will, Valerie Morton,
passed away in 2015, Indiana became entirely dependent on
him.

Brannan and lawyers for Thomas did not immediately respond to
requests for comment.

Thomas’s lawyers have previously
denied the allegations against him, saying the caretaker “never
stole a dime” from the artist. Thomas’s lawyer, Thomas Hallett, said the
allegations were simply being repeated from the earlier complaint
by the Morgan Art Foundation. “Without question, Thomas was Indiana’s most
trusted and respected confidant,” Hallett said in the suit filed in
July. He adds that the artist was “extremely well cared-for” and
was never neglected. 

The post Robert Indiana’s Estate Accuses His Caretaker of
Allowing the 89-Year-Old Artist to Live in ‘Squalor’ Before He
Died appeared first on artnet News.