Artist George Rodrigue's widow's suit against stepsons latest chapter in family feud

In the latest chapter of a family feud that pits the widow of famed "blue dog" artist George Rodrigue against her two stepsons, Wendy Rodrigue Magnus has sued Jacques and Andre Rodrigue. She says the men cheated her out of a substantial amount of money from the sale of their father's popular prints and in other business dealings.

In a 74-page lawsuit filed in Orleans Parish Civil District Court, Magnus claims that Jacques Rodrigue funneled profits from the prints into a company he controls instead of the trust fund created for her by the artist before his death in 2013. She accuses Jacques Rodrigue of "numerous instances of misconduct that harmed Rodrigue Studios."

Magnus' suit asks the court to order Jacques Rodrigue to account for all business profits and to declare her half-owner of all of her late husband's intellectual property. 

Magnus also asserts that after George Rodrigue’s death, Jacques and his wife removed a pair of Andy Warhol portraits and a George Rodrigue original painting  from her former home. She is asking the court to order them returned.

In July, Jacques and Andre Rodrigue sued their stepmother and her husband, Douglas Magnus, claiming that their father intended them to “inherit and manage his legacy.”

Their suit alleges that Jacques Rodrigue performed the day-to-day management of his father’s businesses after his death, including his French Quarter gallery and a smaller Lafayette gallery, while his widow moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and remarried.

Upon Magnus' return to New Orleans in 2016, the Rodrigue brothers claim that she reasserted control of the galleries, overpaying herself and others, while withholding salaries from the stepsons.

The brothers asked the court to remove their stepmother from the management of businesses and to stop her from operating a rival to the George Rodrigue Foundation, which she calls the George Rodrigue Life and Legacy Foundation.

The sons' suit alleges various acts by Rodrigue’s widow and her husband which they say “present imminent danger of irreparable damage to George Rodrigue’s legacy and the survival of the various Rodrigue’s businesses.”

According to NOLA.com, in a prepared statement this week, Magnus said that during their 16-year marriage, she and George Rodrigue shared a vision of life, art and business that she hoped to continue after his death. “Unfortunately,” she said, "Jacques Rodrigue has led a charge to destroy this vision and engaged in serious misconduct since his father’s death.”