The Ken Stuart Sage

Norman Rockwell once wrote, “Everything I am, everything I have ever done, everything I hope to be, I owe to Ken [Stuart].”

Ken, the longtime art director of The Saturday Evening Post who had showcased Rockwell’s paintings on the Post’s covers, died in 1993 leaving his estate to his three sons — Ken Jr., William and Jonathan — in equal shares, including the his collection of Rockwell art.

As reported in Alison Leigh Cowan & Matthew J. Malone, A Family Scene Rockwell Wouldn’t Have Painted, NY Times, Dec. 27, 2006,

William and Jonathan, have spent 13 years fighting in court against their older brother, Ken Jr., saying that he took advantage of their ailing father, forcing him to sign papers to gain control of the entire fortune. The younger Stuarts charge that Ken Jr., who has been self-employed since 1991, used estate assets to enrich himself at their expense * * *

This epic family feud has ambled through five different courts, piling up more than 20,000 pages of documentary evidence. But unlike other situations in which litigation begets litigation and only the lawyers win, the longer the brothers squabble, the richer they all get, as the art increases in value.

Special thanks to Prof. Joel C. Dobris of the University of California-Davis for bringing this article to my attention.