By Jennie Curtin
First published in the Sydney Morning Herald on May, 12, 1993.
The three women in Brett Whiteley’s life came together yesterday - to battle over the artist’s will in the NSW Supreme Court.
In a crowded courtroom — standing room only for latecomers - Arkie Whiteley, 28, took the witness stand to swear that her father had told her she would be “very wealthy” when he died.
Miss Janice Spencer, Whiteley’s girlfriend, also took her oath and said Whiteley had promised that “if anything happens to me, you will be taken care of’.
Where there’s a will ... Arkie Whiteley (centre left) leaves the Supreme Court with Christopher Kuhn, Wendy Whiteley, Blanche D’Alpuget and Nicki Goldstein.Credit: Peter Rae
Mrs Wendy Whiteley, the artist’s former wife, looked on from the front row of the public gallery.
The dispute between Whiteley’s women revolves around a missing will which may or may not have been written, which may or may not revoke his previous will and may or may not have been hidden in his Surry Hills studio.
According to Arkie, her father - who died last June — decided to change his will in 1991.
She said that after years of battling through the Family Court in his prolonged divorce from Wendy, he was sick of “bloody lawyers” and decided to write the document himself and tape it under the fourth drawer of a kitchen cabinet in his studio.
However, when Whiteley died the alleged will could not be found.
Arkie’s former boyfriend, Mr Christopher Kuhn, said the only traces were remnants of the tape he and Brett used to secrete it.
The 1991 will allegedly left money to his mother, Beryl, sister, Mrs Wendy Hopkirk; bequeathed paintings to his old school, Scots College, Bathurst, and to Miss Spencer; set aside funds for a scholarship for young artists; and left the rest of his estate “in its entirety” to Arkie.
Janice Spencer leaves the court.Credit: Peter Rae
The 1989 will, by contrast, stipulated that his studio at 2 Raper Street, Surry Hills, be set up as a museum, and directed that the rest of his estate be divided into 20 shares. Twelve were earmarked for Arkie, three for Mrs Hopkirk, three for Mrs Beryl Whiteley and two for Miss Spencer.
Arkie claimed yesterday that the museum was a “divorce device” which Whiteley set up to stop his former wife from getting his paintings. She said it was the idea of his divorce solicitor, Miss Carol Foreman.
By Easter 1990, when he visited her in London, her father told her the museum would not go ahead, Arkie said.
Whiteley’s one-time accountant, Mr Anthony Clune, said the artist told him in November 1991 that he had “changed his will again”. When Mr Clune suggested at their meeting that a lawyer should look at the document, Whiteley responded vigorously: “I hate solicitors. They are always ripping you off.”
Set up as a museum ... Brett Whiteley in his studio.Credit: Gerritt Fokkema
Mrs Hopkirk said there was competition between Arkie and Janice. When she saw him on her farm near Orange two months before his death, “he was exhausted, he was lonely, he was besieged by the ... relationships with the women in his life”.
Miss Spencer, who joined Whiteley on the farm to celebrate his birthday, said Brett told her then that Arkie and Wendy were “very hostile” to her. “They really hate you and I have to deal with that hostility.”
He allegedly promised her: “If anything happens to me, you will be taken care of.”
Miss Spencer said she had a key to Whiteley’s Surry Hills studio, as Mr Kuhn did.
Justice Powell asked if she had ever seen an envelope stuck under the drawer in the kitchen. No, she had not.
I take it you didn’t take the document? - That’s correct. I did not.
Mrs Beryl Whiteley heard after her son died that there were stories about another will which Mr Kuhn was involved with. But to her “it seemed like the pair of them together on a drunken night out”.
The hearing continues today.
Although it was never recovered, Justice Powell considered the 1991 handwritten will from 1991 as the one that most outlined his wishes and, consequently, the big winner was daughter Arkie who on May 14, became a multi-millionaire. The big loser was Miss Spencer who received a single painting - a nude of her entitled Afternoon in Surry Hills. Arkie Whiteley died from adrenal cancer in 2001. Janice Spencer died of a heroin overdose in 2000.