Massachusetts Museum Lays Claim to Dr. Kevorkian's Art
An Armenian museum sued the lawyer for Dr. Jack Kevorkian's estate, claiming he donated his artworks to the museum, not to a niece who claims them. The disputed works include 17 paintings, "writings, some musical compositions, a sweater and a hat." The Armenian Library and Museum of America, of Watertown, Mass., sued attorney Mayer Morganroth in Middlesex County Court. Kevorkian, who died in June, became famous for his work in assisted suicide. He was prosecuted unsuccessfully four times, and his medical license was suspended, before he was convicted of second-degree homicide in 1999, in a case in which he dismissed his attorneys and represented himself. He served 8 years of a 10-to-25-year sentence and was paroled in 2007, on the condition he stop assisting in suicides. Kevorkian also was a jazz musician and painter. The Armenian Museum claims that in 1999 it approached Kevorkian's curator, the Ariana Gallery in Royal Oak, Mich., to discuss mounti...