A MISSING Elizabeth Taylor artwork by Andy Warhol is at the centre of a multimillion-dollar lawsuit and cannot be seen by the world until it is resolved.
The silkscreen print emerged only recently - despite having been created in 1964 - after the artist's former bodyguard, Agusto Bugarin, attempted to sell it at a Manhattan gallery. Bugarin asserts that the artist gave him the piece in the Eighties, but lawyers for the Andy Warhol Foundation have claimed that the former bodyguard is a "patient thief" who waited until anyone who could disprove his story had died before selling it.
The two sides came to an agreement of sorts this week, with Bugarin signing a deal to give the canvas to a fine-arts warehouse for safekeeping, Page Six reports. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Cynthia Kern agreed to allow each side to appoint a representative to accompany the canvas to Crozier Fine Arts, Inc.
The Foundation began litigation against Bugarin last month, but now the parties are in settlement negotiations over the work.
Read more: Elizabeth Taylor: Her Life In Pictures