The artist, his stepdaughter and the $3m brawl over a will
John Olsen takes stepdaughter to court over allegations she forced her dying mum to change her will.
One of Australia’s greatest living artists, John Olsen, has taken his stepdaughter Karen Mentink to court over allegations that she pressured her terminally ill mother to rewrite her will and siphon off more than $3 million from his estate.
The family fallout has landed in the NSW Supreme Court, which convened a special hearing in the Moss Vale Court House in the Southern Highlands yesterday, a short drive from the artist’s homestead in Bowral.
Olsen is suing Ms Mentink, alleging the $3.3m claim she has on his estate was the result of her “unconscionable conduct” in forcing her mother, Katharine Olsen, the artist’s fourth wife of 27 years, to hand over control of her part of the estate when she was “cognitively impaired”.
The court heard Katharine Olsen had suffered a sudden and “dramatic” personality change in 2016 as a result of two brain tumours that left her confused, paranoid, and uncharacteristically aggressive with family members. The tumours were removed in June 2016, but on October 5 that year she was told her condition was terminal.
Mr Olsen’s barrister, Mark McCulloch, told the court yesterday it was at that point Karen Mentink had moved with “unseemly haste”.
On October 10 that year she is alleged to have prevailed upon her mother to write up a new will, setting her up with a new law firm and instructions to increase her inheritance from $2m to an estimated $5.3m, the court heard. The next day, mother and daughter went to the Commonwealth Bank in Bowral, where Katharine Olsen transferred $2.17m to her daughter from one of her joint bank accounts with Olsen, along with another $30,000 payment, Mr McCulloch said.
The handwritten money transfer did “not appear” to be in Katherine Olsen’s writing, and her signature was “shaky”.
The court was told Ms Mentink had been in a position to exert “undue influence” over her mother at the time, given their relationship had “reverted from mother and daughter … to child and carer”.
Ms Mentink moved in to the Olsen family home to care for her mother in the weeks before her death on December 23, 2016.
According to Mr McCulloch, “what she did was to take over the running of the partnership and other businesses operated by Mr Olsen.
“Adding fuel to the fire, as if any more was needed”, Ms Mentink made herself a signatory to all the accounts and after her mother’s death, she had written a series of unauthorised cheques, including two $10,000 cheques for her son and daughter, along with a cheque for herself of $50,000, Mr McCulloch told the court.
In the witness box yesterday, Olsen said his wife’s behaviour in her last few months had been “very irrational”.
“She sort of became very anxious, quite abusive to a number of people,” the 91-year-old artist said.
“My wife did not ask me or tell me that any money was being given to Karen Mentink. I would never give such vast amounts of money like that to anyone.”
The court heard even before Ms Mentink’s financial dealings had been discovered, tensions had escalated between Olsen and his stepdaughter after his wife’s death when he accused her of “pilfering” his property during a series of visits to his Bowral home.
On one occasion, he said, Ms Mentink had turned up with a tow truck and Olsen’s property manager had been forced to intervene when he heard the pair arguing, with Ms Mentink “standing over Mr Olsen”.
It came to a head on November 20, 2017, when Ms Mentink arrived unannounced at Mr Olsen’s home with her partner, George Lawrence, to confront Olsen over the delay to her mother’s will.
Olsen told the court: “They were very aggressive … I was intimidated.”
The confrontation was captured on a mobile phone video by Olsen’s daughter, Louise Olsen, who is the co-founder of jewellery and homewares empire Dinosaur Designs. In a heated exchange, Mr Lawrence repeatedly told Olsen he was legally compelled to act on the wishes of his late wife, instead of leaving “the will sitting in limbo”. “Now it doesn’t matter what you or I think, the law says,” he told the artist.
“You can say this is your house, my house, whatever. Until the estate is finalised, it belongs to the estate.”
When Ms Olsen told the pair to leave, Mr Lawrence accused her of being “very aggressive in telling us to go”.
Ms Mentink then weighed in, demanding Olsen tell her whether she was “still part of the family.”
“I’m not answering that question,” Olsen responded.
“Well, how do you think that makes me feel?” Ms Mentink said.
“When you said to me last year that you would always treat me as a daughter, that you would always treat me as a daughter and equal to Louise and Tim (Olsen’s son), and you loved and cared for me. To be told 10 months after my mother has died and after I looked after you so well, that you no longer want me as part of your life.”
Ms Olsen also gave evidence yesterday, insisting she had recorded the confrontation only because she “felt protective of her father”.
Under cross-examination from Ms Mentink’s barrister, Raoul Wilson, Ms Olsen denied she’d had a “strained relationship” with her stepmother and had made “no attempt to cultivate it”.
“I tried very hard to get on with Katharine … I reached out on many occasions to Katharine,” Ms Olsen said.
The hearing continues.
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