Sexual Assault Lawsuit Against Norval Morrisseau Estate Is Tossed Out

British Columbia’s Supreme Court this week dismissed a lawsuit accusing the late artist Norval Morrisseau of sexual assault, the BBC reported. canadian news agency.

Marc Anthony Jacobson filed a lawsuit against the artist’s estate, claiming that Morisot touched his buttocks without his consent. Jacobson claimed that he visited Morisot in 2006, about a year before the Anishinaabe artist’s death, when an assistant told Jacobson that Morisot could cure his back pain.

The estate has strongly disputed the claims, saying Morisot was battling late-stage Parkinson’s disease at this time and was “confined to a wheelchair.” The estate said in a filing that the artist was “devoid of any physical or social aggression” and had “no sexual desires.”

Jacobson is seeking $5 million in damages. according to canadian news agencythe action was dismissed “for all purposes” without costs to either party.

During his lifetime, Morisot was praised for his paintings that used abstract images of nature in the style of Anishinaabe art. The paintings, owned by institutions such as the National Gallery of Canada and the Detroit Institute of Arts, earned him the nickname “Picasso of the North.”

Since his death, the Morisot estate has regularly made headlines as it battles a series of fakes that have hit the market. In 2024, a Canadian man admitted overseeing the production of thousands of counterfeit Morisot works. Some of the pieces were produced using digital painting techniques, he said.