Legal battle ensues over Norval Morrisseau’s estate

Norval Morrisseau’s seven children launched a lawsuit June 30 in a British Columbia Supreme Court against Gabe Vadas, who has been named the sole beneficiary of the famed artist’s estate.
Vadas, who acted as Morrisseau’s business manager, also considered himself to be Morriseau’s ‘spiritual son.’
Morrisseau met Vadas on the streets in the early-1990s as he went through a period of dark days.
Vadas had been named as the executor, trustee and sole beneficiary in Morrisseau’s will dated July 16, 1999.
However, Morrisseau’s children claim their father’s will was executed under suspicious circumstances and they seek to have the court declare his will invalid.
The children contend since their father was suffering from Parkinson’s disease, he was not capable of approving the will’s contents.
In their lawsuit, they seek to exercise control over the right to use their father’s name and images to reproduce his work.
Morrisseau was known as the Picasso of the North and helped to launch the woodland style of painting.
Morrisseau, along with six other Aboriginal artists became known as the Indian Group of Seven. The other six artists are Daphne Odjig, Jackson Beardy, Carl Ray, Joseph Sanchez, Eddy Cobiness, and Alex Janvier.
Morrisseau’s work is featured in many Canadian prestigious art galleries.
The seven children have created the Norval Morrisseau Family Foundation to protect their father’s legacy.
This is not the first time the Morrisseau children have launched a legal challenge against Vadas.
When Morrisseau passed away in December 2007 at the age of 75, the children also contested their father’s burial plans.
They won the right to have their father’s remains returned for a burial in Keewaywin First Nation so he could be laid to rest next to his wife Harriet Kakegamic.