Peter Beard’s extraordinary life—do we have the space to list all of the artists (Francis Bacon, Andy Warhol) and models (Cheryl Tiegs, Iman) and writers (Karen Blixen, Truman Capote) and society figures (Lee Radziwill) with whom he collided?—was messy. He made his name, beyond the rewards of his preternatural good looks, as a photographer and adventurer—traveling between Kenya and Montauk, with long pauses in Manhattan nightclubs, taking photographs and keeping voluminous diaries. Over time, the border between his life and art—often hand-worked with text and drawings and the story of his life—which was never easily defined, would disappear completely. In early 2020, Beard, suffering from dementia and the after-effects of a stroke, wandered away from his Montauk home and died in the woods at the age of 82. Now, after years of a slowing market, Beard's studio is trying to reassert itself. Last month, lawyers for the studio, run by his widow, Nejma, filed a lawsuit against Heritage Auctions. At dispute is the sale of 51 lots held on October 25 entitled In Focus: Peter Beard Showcase, of which 38 lots were sold for $97,669. (A portion of the proceeds was meant to go to a charity called Aprile’s Memorial French Bulldogs Special Needs Support Services.) The studio argues that the consignor never had a right to sell the items, and is upset that Heritage did not consult with them about the nature of the materials before the sale. Some of the material, they contend, belong with the estate of Karen Blixen, the Danish adventurer and resident of Kenya. Many of the lots were manuscripts or personal photographs, diary pages, or even books, including Beard’s personal copy of Blixen’s Out of Africa. Once the studio was aware of the sale, the lawsuit asserts, they tried to contact Heritage to tell the auction house the works were in fact Beard’s personal effects, journals, and ephemera, and thus should not be marketed and sold as examples of his art. Indeed, the studio objected to the idea of a single-artist sale without any of the artist’s actual work. They never heard back from Heritage. “As a last resort, the studio brings this lawsuit,” the filing states, “to signal clearly to Heritage—and the market generally—that it will not tolerate this type of blatant disregard for the integrity of Beard’s body of work, and his artistic legacy.” In other words, the studio seems most concerned with asserting its role as the arbiter of what is, and what is not, a Beard work of art. Established in 2001 to address the haphazard way that Beard dealt with his work since the mid-1980s, the studio is tasked with creating an archive of his artwork, complete with inventory numbers, to help authenticate pieces, as well as order and preserve his many journals. Before he died, Beard was an active participant in the studio’s work. He edited books about his own work; helped authenticate work and monitor the market for his unique objects; and worked with the archivist to create a database. And, as the only source for artwork by Beard, the studio has an interest in policing his secondary market.