Estate Fights Over Paintings – Was The Artist Insane?

Martin Ramírez’s artistic reputation has undergone an extraordinary re-evaluation in the last few years, with his paintings now fetching hundreds of thousands of dollars at auction. Now a multi-million dollar legal battle has begun over the ownership of his paintings, hundreds of which he simply gave away in the hospital ward. An auction of 17 paintings at Sotheby’s was recently halted when lawyers for the Ramírez family claimed them. At the heart of the legal dispute is a conundrum. Was Ramírez, who was diagnosed a “catatonic schizophrenic” really insane?