A five-year legal dispute between heirs of the renowned artist Thomas Hart Benton and the trust department that administered and managed the Benton Trust produced a significant ruling last month in Jackson County, Missouri Circuit Court. The judgment, in favor of UMB Bank, was issued by the Honorable Mark J. Styles on December 13, 2024. Shook, Hardy and Bacon represented UMB in the litigation, fending off claims for hundreds of millions in damages sought by the artist’s daughter and three adult grandchildren. The plaintiffs filed suit in 2019 alleging that the bank lost or mismanaged hundreds of pieces of fine art created by Benton, an acclaimed Regionalist artist with strong ties to Missouri. The complex case covered multiple different lines of dispute, including sales of fine art from the trust, monetization of alleged copyrights, and investment of the non-art assets held in trust. The trust, which held over 3,000 works of art, including many of Benton’s most significant works, had been administered by UMB since its creation nearly 45 years ago. Thus, aspects of the case pertaining to the sale of fine art delved into four decades of evolving standards in highly specialized areas ranging from collection inventories, to curatorial practice, to sales customs, to appraisal methods. After a five-month bench trial, with 67 witnesses, 3,700 exhibits, and a transcript of over 14,000 pages, Judge Styles held that UMB did not breach its duties to the beneficiaries as claimed, awarding only $35,000 to the plaintiffs for five sketches or studies unaccounted for by the bank. UMB welcomed the court's thorough review of the evidence, analysis and conclusions. The plaintiffs’ counsel stated that the heirs are evaluating their options.
Read more articles in the Art Law Bulletin >>
