DNA twist in battle for £285m art estate

Tests support Italian family's claim that art connoisseur Sir Harold Acton had illegitimate half-sister

John Hooper in Rome
Friday May 21, 2004
The Guardian

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A transatlantic legal battle over the £285m estate of one of the 20th century's most distinguished art connoisseurs, Sir Harold Acton, took a new turn yesterday when it was reported that DNA tests had authenticated claims by an Italian family that he had an unacknowledged and illegitimate half-sister. The woman's children are claiming a half-share in one of the world's greatest art collections from the US university to which it had been bequeathed.

The protagonists in the wrangle include a Honolulu-based Italian princess and a man thought to have inspired a character in Evelyn Waugh's novel, Brideshead Revisited.

Sir Harold Acton, a renowned collector and reputedly the model for Waugh's undergraduate aesthete, Anthony Blanche, died in 1994, willing his estate to New York University. At the time it was the biggest bequest ever made to a US seat of learning.

Acton left 40,000 rare books, 5,000 art works, including one attributed to Donatello, and a 57-acre estate with four villas. The biggest is Villa La Pietra, a 60-room Medici family palace, whose former guests include Prince Charles, Winston Churchill, DH Lawrence and Picasso.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/italy/story/0,12576,1221528,00.html