Within months of the death of the wife of Australia's most celebrated artist John Olsen, 93, paintings "seemed to disappear" from the couple's barn.
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"There were a lot of prints and a couple of Brett Whitely paintings and a Ben Quilty painting stored up in the barn and some of those seemed to disappear," the couple's gardener Peter Farley testified in court documents.
"Another day I noticed that two expensive Japanese maples in decorative pots were missing from the back porch. I asked [another staff member] Sally what had happened to them and she said words to the effect of, 'The Japanese maples? Karen took those. She didn't ask John'."
Olsen is suing his stepdaughter Karen Mentink for allegedly skimming $2.3 million from the estate of her mother Katharine Olsen, the artist's wife of 27 years who died in December 2016.
According to his statement of claim filed with the NSW Supreme Court, Mentink signed across $2.2 million to herself from the Olsens' joint bank accounts two months before Mrs Olsen's death "by reason of undue influence or unconscionability".
At the time, Katharine Olsen was suffering from a cognitive impairment and unable to care for herself.
Mentink is also alleged to have withdrawn from the Olsens' business various amounts including $39,390 for herself, and $10,000 for various friends of Katharine's and her own children.
Mentink has claimed in court documents that the withdrawals were undertaken at the instruction of Mrs Olsen and the $2.2 million was a gift. She spent it on property purchases, renovations, legal fees, medical expenses, the retirement of her daugher's HECS debt, garden ornaments and travel expenses.
In an affidavit filed with the NSW Supreme Court, Olsen said Mentink had long been in the habit of asking the couple for money, including a new kitchen for her home and the school fees for her children and her relationship with his wife "fluctuated, it was tidal".
However, in the last months of Mrs Olsen's life he allowed Mentink to stay in a cottage at their Moss Vale property so mother and daughter could spend as much time together as possible before death intervened. During this time Mentink helped look after Mrs Olsen, and took over the task of managing the couple's finances.
"She would present me with a completed cheque and say words to the effect, 'John, you need to sign these'," Olsen said in his affidavit.
"I signed them in the same manner that I had signed cheques handed to me by Katharine before she became ill. When Karen took over I had absolute faith and frankly did not really want to know about such matters."
But after Mrs Olsen died, his relationship with Mentink changed.
She would allegedly turn up at the house unannounced and take items from the house - ceramic pots, an autumn coloured raincoat, a valuable English teapot and tiny paintings by Sally Aurisch.
"There was constant pilfering," Olsen said.
Farley also observed Mentik carrying items out of the main house during the period after Katharine's death, the court heard.
"One day I was talking to John in the kitchen and I saw Karen walking in front of the house holding a painting," he said in his affidavit.
"John said ... 'Oh my word, look at this! That painting is worth a lot of money! How much does this woman want?'"
Six months after Mrs Olsen's death, Mentink handed him a list divided into sections: "Things of mum's that I would like", "Things belonging to You and Mum that I would like if you pass away before me" and "If you choose to leave me any paintings, these ones mean something to me".
They include a Sidney Nolan painting of Santorini and "The Chinese Mother and Child in Mum's Dressing Room" - beside which Olsen has handwritten the word "No" - and a Sally Aurisches Oyster which he allowed her to take.
A few weeks later, Mentink turned up with a truck and two removalists.
The hearing continues.
