The widow of artist Chang Chin-fa (張金發), who passed away in 2012 at the age of 78, has been ordered by a court to return her late husband’s paintings to the university he initially donated them to.
Chang’s widow, Chang Lin Hsiu-hsiang (張林秀香), borrowed the paintings for an event and later refused to return them.
Chang Lin Hsiu-hsiang (張林秀香) in 2017 requested to borrow 12 of her late husband’s paintings from the National Taiwan University of Arts for an event she held to commemorate the fifth anniversary of his passing.
Photo: Huang Hsu-lei, Taipei Times
She later refused to return the paintings, saying that her husband had never meant for them to be gifted to the university.
She said that her late husband had only lent them with the intention of promoting local arts and culture.
The university took the case to court for a decision. In the first ruling, the New Taipei City District Court ruled in its favor. Chang Lin appealed, and in the second ruling the judge upheld the former ruling and ordered her to return the paintings to the school.
The judge in the second ruling said that the evidence supported the university’s claim that her husband had intended the paintings to be donated to the university.
The 12 paintings depict scenes of Aboriginal villagers and fishers, and scenes of various locations in Taiwan. Chang Chin-fa donated the paintings in 2008, and in 2012 he passed away.
Chang Lin applied in January 2017 to borrow the paintings, and the university agreed to the request in March that year, under the condition the paintings would be returned by the end of July, it said.
When Chang Lin refused to return the paintings after the deadline, the university sued for their return, in addition to NT$590,000 in damages.
During the court hearing, Chang Lin argued that her husband had only agreed to lend the paintings to the university, because he had heard that it was planning to build a new art museum, and he had hoped his paintings could be used in an opening exhibit.
She said the university had not presented the paintings, but rather kept them stored in a warehouse, and argued that they were the rightful inheritance of her and her two daughters.
The High Court judge did not agree with these claims based on the paperwork presented by the university.
The court ordered that Chang Lin must return the paintings to the university.
Monetary damages were not awarded.
The ruling can be appealed.
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