He Sold the Picture, Jury Got the Picture and Freed Him

The butler didn’t do it.

With that Los Angeles County Superior Court jury verdict, Rune Gunnar Donell was exonerated Friday on criminal charges of stealing a valuable oil painting from the Bel-Air chateau of his longtime employers, Howard and Elizabeth Keck.

Elizabeth Keck, now estranged from her husband, had alleged that Donell stole the painting and sold it in his native Sweden for $500,000. But Donell said he sold the work in April, 1987, at her direction and then gave her the money, minus his $90,000 commission.

Both she and Donell testified during the monthlong trial.

According to Donell’s lawyer, Donald C. Randolph, there are records of Donell having been paid for the painting, but none of his having turned the money over to Mrs. Keck. But, according to Donell, that was as Mrs. Keck had requested.

It was Mrs. Keck who called police last August, saying she had found a high-quality photograph of the oil, “I Fria Luften,” where it had hung earlier.

The 1888 Impressionist painting, by Swedish master Anders Zorn, is now in the hands of a private collector in Sweden.

The Kecks, who were then and still are going through divorce proceedings, were not available for comment Friday.

Since his arrest in September, Donell has been in custody, held on $500,000 bail. Randolph said his client was going home to his West Los Angeles apartment on Friday to “take a hot bath.” He had worked for the Kecks for 15 years as a butler and driver, and his wife for 10 as a cook. They retired in May, 1987.

The case drew international attention, in part because of the Kecks’ prominence. She serves as a Museum of Contemporary Art trustee; Keck, a retired chairman of Superior Oil Co., is listed by Forbes magazine as one of America’s 400 wealthiest people.