John Olsen’s step daughter sues the revered Australian artist
Australia’s most revered living artist John Olsen is being sued by his step daughter, who wants a share of his paintings, company and properties.
NSW
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John Olsen’s step daughter is suing the renowned Australian painter for a slice of his business, artworks and properties as their family feud gets even uglier.
In September Mr Olsen won his own lawsuit against Karen Howard Mentink when a NSW Supreme Court judge found she’d pressured her terminally ill mother to transfer $2.2 million into her account two months before she died of cancer in 2016.
Not only is Ms Mentink appealing this decision, but she’s now launched a fresh lawsuit to claw back what she says is rightfully hers after her elderly stepfather removed her as a beneficiary of his will in 2017.
Ms Mentink claims she’s still entitled to a quarter of the value of all the Archibald Prize winner’s artworks, his John Olsen company, and three properties worth nearly $2 million.
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The unemployed Bowral mum argues the 92-year-old breached a mutual will agreement he made with his late wife Katharine Howard-Olsen in December 2012.
The couple agreed to leave everything to each other, and the survivor would then bequeath their estate equally between Ms Mentink, Mr Olsen’s two children Timothy and Louise, plus a fourth share would be divided between Mr Olsen’s grandchildren, court documents show.
Augustus Firestone and Georgia Olsen are the kids of Mr Olsen’s oldest daughter from his first marriage, Jane, who died of cancer in 2009.
Mr Olsen and his wife vowed not to revoke the arrangement after the death of either one of them, under an agreement made “partly in writing, partly oral and partly implied”, according to Ms Mentink’s statement of claim.
“When we have both died there will be a four-way split of our estate,” Ms Mentink’s mum allegedly told her in 2012 in the presence of her stepfather.
Now Ms Mentink is seeking damages from the celebrated artist, and wants one quarter of the value of his properties named Moore Hill and Ballantree.
She’s also after a share of Hidden Lake, a $1 million property in the Southern Highlands where Mr Olsen and his wife of 27 years lived before she died.
Ms Mentink moved in around June 2016 to help care for her mother – who was dying of brain cancer – and manage the household.
Last year judge John Sackar found Ms Mentink preyed on her vulnerable 75-year-old mum to secure a secret $2.2 million “gift”, which she had claimed was a deathbed revenge for Mr Olsen’s suspected infidelity.
The judge rejected this, saying: “it was an act of self-indulgence, somewhat callous and extraordinarily selfish.”
Mr Olsen testified that just before Mrs Howard-Olsen died in December 2016 she told him: “Karen is after money and the properties.”
After the death of his fourth wife, Mr Olsen said his relationship with his stepdaughter soured and she began turning up unannounced and taking items from the house, telling the court: “there was constant pilfering.”
The widower, who now lives in Glenquarry, denies his stepdaughter’s newest accusations and added that they should have been raised as a cross claim during their first bitter legal dispute, which involved the same witnesses and evidence.
“The proceedings bought by the plaintiff should be permanently stayed as an abuse of process,” Mr Olsen’s defence reads.
The case returns to court on Tuesday.