The Art Newspaper

Houston court decides in favour of museum in Glassell will trial

Daughter of oilman and philanthropist loses challenge against will which left half his estate to the MFA and a family foundation

By Martha Lufkin | Web only
Published online 25 Nov 09 (News)

This stylised gold crocodile pendant, given to the MFA Houston by Alfred Glassell while he was alive, was shown during the trial to illustrate the philanthropist's commitment to the museum

An heiress has lost a will contest which sought to invalidate an oilman’s massive bequests to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) and a family foundation. On 16 November, a jury at the Harris County probate court in Houston decided against the claimant, Curry Glassell, who had sought a larger inheritance by challenging the will of her father, Texas oil pioneer and half-billionaire philanthropist Alfred C. Glassell, Jr.

Curry Glassell had launched a two-fold attack, saying that when her father signed new wills in 2000 and 2003 he had dementia, and was susceptible to being unduly influenced because of diminished capacity. She lost on both counts. The jury vote was unanimous after a two-week trial.

Alfred Glassell died in October 2008 at age 95, having established the Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Corp, the first transmission system bringing gas from Texas to New York, and the teaching school at the MFAH, the Glassell School of Art. Under his 2003 will, which will now be put into effect, Glassell left his residuary estate, after other gifts, in equal shares to the MFAH and a charity he created, the Glassell Family Foundation. Each charity will receive half of its bequest now, with the balance to be paid at the death of Alfred Glassell’s widow, Clare Attwell Glassell, on the termination of a trust for her benefit to be created under the will. The gifts to the charities total roughly $200-$250 million each.

Glassell claimed her father was vulnerable, but “she could not prove that anyone was exerting undue influence at the time that the will was signed,” Joseph Jamail, an attorney for the museum, told The Art Newspaper. She tried to prove that MFAH director Peter Marzio and his wife Frances had unduly influenced her father to leave the museum half of his residuary estate, but the Marzios both testified at trial, and “the jury totally embraced them,” Jamail said, adding that “Alfred and Peter were friends. They had lunch for years.” Glassell’s allegation that her father lacked mental capacity to make a will “snatched bits and pieces out of the medical record,” but “the jury didn’t buy it,” Jamail said.

At trial, Clare Glassell asked the jury to honor her husband by upholding the will, saying that Alfred had a strong love for the museum during their 46 years of marriage and wanted it taken care of. Trial testimony also included showing the jury pre-Columbian and African gold artifacts which Alfred Glassell had given the museum during his lifetime. The will leaves all of his artifacts owned at death, including pre-Columbian gold works, to the museum, a bequest valued at roughly $30 million. In a pre-trial deposition, Mrs Glassell said that when her husband “was facing his mortality, he realized that he wanted something to go on” by making the gift of the artifacts collection, and “realized that institutions needed to have money to take care of things.”

In their trial testimony, the Marzios said that they had become friends of and were very close to Alfred Glassell, and that he knew what he was doing when he signed the disputed wills.

A key charge in the will contest was not related to the museum, which received the same share of the residuary estate under the 2003 will as in earlier wills, except for changes in the timing of when the museum would receive the gift. Glassell claimed that her father had been unduly influenced by his lawyers, at a time when he was vulnerable, to divert 50% of his residuary estate away from herself and her brother to the Glassell Family Foundation, whose trustees included other clients of the law firm. But the jury rejected this too.

Alfred Glassell had made substantial gifts to the museum during his lifetime, including the Collection of African Gold, which includes objects from royal courts of the Akan peoples of Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire. He was chairman of the board of trustees for years and raised over $100 million for the museum’s new Audrey Jones Beck building. He also separately provided for his daughter and son through lifetime gifts.

The museum intervenes

Alfred Glassell provided that any beneficiary who contested his will would lose all benefits under it. Based on a unanimous vote by the MFAH board of trustees that it will carry out a benefactor’s wishes to the letter, the museum intervened in the lawsuit not only to request approval of the 2003 will, but also to ask the court to enforce the “no contest” clause, which would mean that Glassell would forfeit her bequest of valuable cash. The assets would instead be split between the museum and the foundation. The court has yet to rule on this question.

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