Widow and girlfriend of the late Thomas Kinkade fight over estate
The legal battle over the estate of the late artist, Thomas Kinkade, the self-proclaimed “Painter of Light,” returned to court today with his widow and girlfriend both claiming control of the multimillion-dollar estate. 😉 Meanwhile, the validity of two “barely legible” handwritten wills is questioned. The former girlfriend, Amy Pinto-Walsh, claims that Kinkade wrote the wills leaving her his Monte Sereno mansion named Ivy Gate and $10 million to establish a museum of his artwork in the studio adjacent to the mansion.
The lawyers of Nanette Kinkade, who was the artist’s wife of 30 years and the mother of his four grown daughters filed documents on Friday that contested the handwritten wills. The documents include Kinkade’s original will and three codicils (amendments) that he made through 2007, none of the documents in the shaky handwriting of the contested wills. The documents claim tha Pinto-Walsh, 48, used “her feminine wiles” to take advantage of Kinkade, who was suffering from severe alcoholism at the time the contested wills were written, in November and December of 2011. Pinto-Walsh had been dating Kinkade for about 18 months and living with him at the Monte Sereno mansion for about a year, when he died at age 54 of lethal levels of alcohol and Valium at the home, on April 6, 2012. Kinkade had been separated from his wife for about two years, but was not divorced.
The Santa Cruz Sentinel states:
Pinto-Walsh “was able to and did control and influence the mind and actions of the Decedent to such an extent that Decedent did whatever Respondent instructed him to do,” according to the documents filed Friday. “Taking advantage of this trust and confidence, Respondent suggested and dictated the contents of the Documents and caused Decedent to draft and execute the Documents.”
The writing on the wills appeared so shaky that one handwriting expert who briefly reviewed them told this newspaper that the author “either had Parkinson’s disease or was three sheets to the wind.”
Lawyers for Pinto-Walsh say that those wills show the true wishes of the late artist, who had traveled with Pinto-Walsh to visit other museums to get ideas about how he wanted his own. They also contend that the Kinkades had already divided some of their assets when they separated in 2010, giving the artist full ownership of the Monte Sereno home. Pinto-Walsh believes the handwritten wills not only give her ownership of the house, studio and $10 million, but that they also grant her the right to control $66 million of Kinkade’s fortune. That amount represents about half the artist’s worth, her lawyer says. The other half would go to Nanette Kinkade as her part of the community property.
A trial dealing with the authenticity of the wills likely will not happen for at least six months to a year. Today’s hearing concerned arguments about who should manage the estate in the meanwhile: the widow, the girlfriend, or perhaps a neutral third party.
In the meantime, Pinto-Walsh continues to live in the Monte Sereno home on Ridgecrest Avenue, valued at more than $7 million, according to documents filed by the estate.
“The owners deliver monthly invoices for rent and property maintenance, and will continue to do so as long as Ms. Walsh refuses to move from the residence,” Nanette Kinkade’s lawyer Daniel Casas said in an emailed response to questions posed by this newspaper <The Santa Cruz Sentinel>. “I reiterate that her first lawyer told me that he had advised his client to move from the residence shortly after Mr. Kinkade’s death. I believe that was good advice not accepted.”
Thomas Kinkade – you’re in “a better place.” 😉
-Bill at
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