VANCOUVER — The estate of Indigenous artist Norval Morrisseau is seeking dismissal of a lawsuit alleging he sexually assaulted a fellow painter, saying the accuser is engaged in a “defamation campaign” that began after being denied a bid to be promoted as Morrisseau’s “artistic successor.”
The estate says in its response to the British Columbia Supreme Court lawsuit by Mark Anthony Jacobson that Morrisseau “was in no position to be physically or socially aggressive” at the time of the alleged 2006 assault.
It says he “had no libido,” was held upright in a wheelchair by straps, and was in the advanced stages of Parkinson’s disease, dying of complications from the condition the next year at the age of 75.
None of the claims by Jacobson or the estate have been tested in court.
The estate says in its response, filed on Tuesday, that Jacobson contacted the CEO of the company associated with the estate, Cory Dingle, in 2022 and asked to be promoted as Morrisseau’s “sole spiritual and artistic successor.”
Dingle says in an affidavit that he refused and the next day Jacobson began a “vile and profane text message and internet defamation campaign” against Morrisseau and the estate.
Jacobson claims in his lawsuit that Morrisseau reached into his pants and touched him on the buttocks after Morrisseau’s assistant suggested he could heal Jacobson’s back pain.
Jacobson is seeking a total of $5 million in general, aggravated and punitive damages, and damages for economic loss.
In its response, the estate says Norval Morrisseau “in no way controlled or directed Jacobson’s life, art or vital interests, and Jacobson was in no way dependent on or vulnerable to Norval Morrisseau.”
“Jacobson admired and emulated Norval Morrisseau, but Norval Morrisseau was not the plaintiff’s mentor, spiritual guide or cultural guide.”
In addition to the dismissal of the lawsuit, the estate is seeking an order that Jacobson pay damages for bringing the claim “in bad faith and for an improper purpose.”
It is also seeking costs.
A trailblazer for contemporary Indigenous artists across Canada, Morrisseau received numerous honours, including the Order of Canada.
The estate says Jacobson paints in the style of Morrisseau, “and to some extent has also fashioned his artistic persona after Norval Morrisseau, naming himself ‘Rainbow Thunderbird’ after Norval Morriseau’s Anishnaabek name ‘Copper Thunderbird.'”
Morrisseau’s distinctive and colourful pictographic style has also been widely forged. At least 6,000 fake Morrisseau paintings have been uncovered, costing his estate $100 million in losses, in a phenomenon that police have called the biggest art fraud in world history.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2025.
The Canadian Press
