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"Queen Esther" by Minerva Teichert hangs in the BYU Museum of Art on Jan. 25, 2023.

Sarah Hunt, Daily Herald

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"They Who had Taken Us Captive Required of Us a Song, Psalm 137" by Minerva Teichert hangs in the BYU Museum of Art on Jan. 25, 2023.

Sarah Hunt, Daily Herald

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"Immigrants of New York City (Jewish Refugees)" by Minerva Teichert hangs in the BYU Museum of Art on Jan. 25, 2023.

Sarah Hunt, Daily Herald

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A description of "Immigrants of New York City (Jewish Refugees)" hangs next to Minerva Teichert's works in the BYU Museum of Art on Jan. 25, 2023.

Sarah Hunt, Daily Herald

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On Jan. 30, the Minerva Teichert estate filed a second complaint against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. This time, the suit is in California and Brigham Young University, the BYU Museum of Art, Deseret Book Co., Desert Management Corp. and Latter-Day Home LLC are also being targeted in the legal action.

The estate said the church “knowingly reproduced, distributed and displayed Minerva Teichert’s paintings without her or the Teichert Estate’s permission, … usurped and misappropriated not only Minerva Teichert’s rights in her paintings but also her name and image for the purpose of profiting from the sale of unauthorized prints and other infringing products.”

Teichert, a member of the church, was an artist in the 1900s whose work focused primarily on religious and Western scenes and people. Her work, while popular in the church when she was living, became even more famous and widespread after her death in 1976.

Tim Teichert, her grandson and a representative of the estate since 2018, first sued the church in 2021 in Wyoming, the family’s home state. This new suit alleges Minerva Teichert “never entered into any written agreements with the Church that transferred over legal title or any other rights.”

Most agreements Minerva Teichert made with the church were verbal agreements for loaning or donating her paintings, with the condition of where they would be displayed, per claims made in the suit. Agreements also reportedly were made between the two parties to exchange some of her artwork in place of BYU tuition for her family members.

Both suits point to original paintings by Minerva Teichert that were removed from a church building in Cokeville, Wyoming, where the artist worshiped for most of her life. She gave four original works to the meetinghouse, which adorned the walls from 1955-2014.

The most recent suit claims that the church told Teichert family members about its plans to place those paintings in other meetinghouses and temples to preserve them. The Teichert family says it was against this decision, but the church took one of the paintings, “The Song of Quetzalcoatl,” in 2014 and put it on display in the temple in Star Valley, Wyoming.

“In March or April of 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic and at a time when the congregation was not able to visit the Cokeville Ward Meetinghouse in-person, The Church deceptively removed the remaining three Cokeville Paintings from the Cokeville Ward Meetinghouse, replacing them with corresponding prints of the same works, and relocated the originals to a different location,” Tim Teichert said in the 2023 complaint.

The suit continues to say the church has since taken down or rehomed other works by the late artist without her or her estate’s permission.

In the 2023 suit, the defendants are asked to promptly and permanently cease infringing on Minerva Teichert’s works, image, photo, name and likeness, promptly gather and hand over all versions of the works listed in the complaint, give a report to the estate of all the money made by the copies of her works, pay the Teichert estate monetary damages due to the church’s alleged infringement of copyrights and reimburse the estate for legal costs incurred in the process.

The church rejected the claims and stated it owns the disputed copyrights and paintings.

“The work of Minerva Teichert is loved and admired around the world. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints owns both the paintings and copyrights to the artwork in question. The Church will continue to defend those interests as the case moves through the legal process so that we may preserve and protect this artwork for generations to come,” Sam Penrod, media relations manager for the church, announced through a statement.

No documentation of copyright ownership has been publicly presented by either party thus far.

“For decades, BYU has enjoyed positive relationships with many members of the Teichert family, including Minerva Teichert herself. No organization has done more to celebrate and recognize this artist and her artwork than The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and BYU. BYU and the Church own the paintings and the copyrights to the artwork identified in the lawsuit. The use of the artwork in question by the BYU Museum of Art has been in accordance with standard legal agreements and ethical best practices. As the Church has stated, we ‘will defend (our) interests as the case moves through the legal process so that we may preserve this artwork for generations to come,'” Carri Jenkins, assistant to the BYU president of University Communications, said to The Daily Universe.

Lawyers representing the Teichert estate were unreachable for comment.

The Wyoming case was filed to be moved from state court to the U.S. District Court over Wyoming by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on July 28, 2021. A Cheyenne federal judge set the Wyoming court date for September 2023, according to Fox13.

A court date has not been set for the suit in California.