Mirka Mora’s surviving sons launch legal action over artist’s estate

A legal battle is brewing over the estate of one of Australia’s most loved artists, the late Mirka Mora, with her two surviving sons arguing they “have been hard done by”.

On Tuesday, Philippe and Tiriel Mora launched legal action in the Supreme Court of Victoria over the handling of the Mirka Mora estate.

Based in Los Angeles, Philippe is a filmmaker, best known for directing Mad Dog Morgan, while Blue Mountains-based Tiriel is an actor who played lawyer Dennis Denuto in The Castle, and Martin Di Stasio on the current affairs satire Frontline.

The documents state the art owned by the estate – covering works at a Heide exhibition, in Mirka’s home, and in storage at William Mora Galleries – was valued at approximately $6 million in 2019.

Mora was an acclaimed, prolific artist who created colourful, joyous paintings, drawings, dolls and ceramics, many featuring the angels and eyes which became her trademarks. Her work is held in major galleries and private collections around Australia. She was also a much-loved Melbourne character; flamboyant, intelligent, cheeky and irreverent. When she died aged 90 in August 2018, a state funeral was held in her honour.

The legal action comes after the death of gallerist William Mora, Mirka’s second born son, in April 2023. William’s widow, Anna Mortley-Mora – now sole director of William Mora Galleries in Richmond – is named as a respondent in the action. This masthead contacted her for comment but she declined.

Also named as respondents are current trustees, Anthony William Parsons and Allan Verstandig, and former trustees, accountants Bernard Marin and Christopher Vincent Maher.

Stewart Levitt of Levitt Robinson, acting for Philippe and Tiriel Mora, says the two surviving sons consider “they have been hard done by in terms of the way the estate has been administered up to this point”. Levitt says the sons propose alternative trustees be appointed to run the estate: art dealer and gallerist Tim Olsen, together with Danny Lustig, a chartered accountant.

The legal papers, seen by this masthead, question whether the executors and trustees of the estate have properly discharged their duties to administer Mirka’s estate. The documents also ask if they have created a comprehensive, accurate inventory of the artworks; question copyright fees and royalties and trademarks using the word “Mirka”; and William Mora Galleries being appointed as the agent for the Mora estate in 2023.

The documents also question licensing agreements between the estate and Kip & Co, Kozminsky Jewellery and Third Drawer Down.

Parsons and Verstandig were appointed the current trustees of Mirka’s estate after Marin and Maher resigned as trustees in February.

Parsons and Verstandig declined to comment on the proceedings, while Nancy Collins, legal representative for Marin and Maher, said in a statement her clients would respond to the application in due course.

“The original trustees were appointed in accordance with the express wishes of Mirka Mora herself. They have, at all times, acted diligently, responsibly and in good faith in administering the estate for the benefit of all beneficiaries while faithfully adhering to Mirka’s will, which included her wish that the sale of her art be done in a way that protected her legacy and integrity in the art community,” the statement continued.

“We consider the application to be misconceived. It is framed as a request for guidance but in substance raises broad and unfocused allegations,” Collins said. “We are confident that the Court will find that the estate has been properly administered in accordance with the terms of Mirka Mora’s Will and the trustees’ legal obligations.”

Mora, with husband Georges and baby Philippe, immigrated to Australia from France in 1951. In Melbourne, the couple befriended many artists including Charles and Barbara Blackman, John Perceval, Arthur Boyd and Joy Hester, as well as benefactors Sunday and John Reed, who later founded Heide Museum of Modern Art.

The Moras soon opened Mirka Cafe in Collins Street, one of the first venues in the city to make real coffee, which became a social hub for artists and those in that milieu. Later, they would run Cafe Balzac and then the Tolarno Hotel in St Kilda, where Mirka’s murals are still displayed.

As a Jewish 14-year-old, Mirka, her mother and her two sisters were sent to the Pithiviers internment camp, a temporary location before deportation to Nazi death camps. They managed to flee, but the experience left her forever changed.

Speaking to this masthead in 2021, William said of his mother: “She is such a beacon to joy and exploration of life. All of that was obviously part of dealing with the horrific experience of escaping the Holocaust.”

On her death, this masthead reported: “Mirka left her mark all over the city: on murals in restaurants and at Flinders Street Station; in a mosaic on St Kilda Pier; on a clothing collection worn by many a Melbourne woman; and even on the exterior of a tram in the 1980s.”

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