Dispute over Kinkade will in court
Widow, girlfriend battle for late painter’s estate
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Thomas Kinkade’s widow and girlfriend took their dispute over the late painter’s estate to court on Tuesday as handwritten notes allegedly written by Kinkade that could be central to the clash were made public for the first time.
Amy Pinto - Walsh was living with Kinkade and found his body when the 54-yearold accidentally overdosed on alcohol and Valium in April. She asked a judge to allow arguments over the artist’s contested will to be heard in open probate court.
Lawyers for Kinkade’s wife of 30 years, Nanette Kinkade, and for his company, want the terms to be decided in secret binding arbitration. The couple had been legally separated for more than two years when Kinkade died.
Pinto -Walsh has submitted handwritten notes allegedly written by Kinkade bequeathing her his mansion in Monte Sereno and $10 million to establish a museum of his paintings there, the San Jose Mercury News reported. The two notes, dated Nov. 18, 2011, and Dec. 11, 2011, were written in barely legible print, the newspaper said.
The first, according to a transcription furnished by Pinto -Walsh’s lawyers, reads: “I, Thomas Kinkade, being of sound mind and body do hereby bequeath to Amy Pinto Walsh $10,000,000 in cash from my corporate policy and I give her the house at 16324 and 16342 Ridgecrest Avenue for her security.”
The second note states that along with the house, Pinto -Walsh should be given $10 million to establish the “Thomas Kinkade Museum” at the mansion “for the public display in perpetuity of original art.”
“We’re asking the court whether those instructions should be carried out,” Pinto - Walsh’s lawyer, Sonia Agee, said.
Pinto -Walsh also is asking for legal authority to oversee $66.3 million from Kinkade’s estate, the Mercury-News re- ported.
A July 2 hearing is scheduled to determine the authenticity and legal weight of the notes.