Harvey Fuller, a decadeslong member of the Mystic Art Association, now the Mystic Museum of Art, signed over to his beloved art guild the deed to his 1857 Victorian house overlooking the Mystic River six years ago, when he was 94.

In giving the house to the museum, Fuller, an accomplished artist whose first commission, in the 1930s, was for murals at the famed Cotton Club in New York City, broke the intent of a trust established by him and his late wife in 1994, leaving the property to their four children.

Both Fuller and the museum told The Day in 2013 that the house, the largest gift in the museum's history, was meant to be used as a retreat for artists.

"It is situated in a nice place overlooking the river. I thought it would be a nice place for young artists to come and work," Fuller told The Day at the time.

"It's very exciting for us," said Karen Barthelson, then the art association director. "The artist-in-residence program has always been one of our goals as far as our mission."

The article explained that Fuller would keep life tenancy in the house, and the museum would maintain it.

Fuller, about the time he signed the deed, moved out to live with his caretaker. He died Nov. 21, 2017. The museum, which never did anything to establish an artist-in-residence program, also did little in the way of maintenance, given the peeling paint, falling plaster, rotting stairs and vines growing in the windows today.

The museum put the property on the market in December, with an asking price of $628,000, and it went into a pending sale status in the Realtors' multiple listing service last week.

Meanwhile, with a sale pending, Fuller's daughter, serving a 30-year sentence for firing two shots at the home of a judge near the Fuller home on Bindloss Road, is challenging in Probate Court both the gift of the house to the museum and Fuller's latest will giving the balance of his estate to his caretaker. Jancis Fuller is scheduled to be released in 2022, according to Probate Court records.

Even before her father died, Jancis Fuller, with a series of handwritten motions, applied for conservancy over his affairs, saying he was incompetent at the time he signed the house over to the art association and made his caretaker the beneficiary of his estate, a victim of elder abuse.

Attorney Eugene Cushman, who represented Harvey Fuller at the time he deeded the house and wrote the will, testified in the 2015 competency hearing that Harvey Fuller was of sound mind, happy with the caretaker's help and doing what he wanted. Cushman said he tried to stop him from signing the house over to the museum.

"If anyone abused Harvey, it was the Mystic Art Association, who started insisting and demanding that he give them the house," Cushman told Probate Judge Mathew Greene during one of the 2015 competency hearings, explaining that the gift was something Fuller had talked about with art association officials for many years.

"They were incredibly rude," Cushman said about the association's demand for the deed at the time. "I tried to talk Harvey out of it, but he made the decision."

The lawyer also told the court that Fuller was getting good care from the family he moved in with in Waterford and was happy with his living situation. He met the caretaker while being treated for a fall at Lawrence + Memorial Hospital, where she works.

I tracked down Fuller's caretaker, Griselda Urena, last week, and in the short time I spent with her, I could understand why she so quickly earned the elderly artist's trust. She graciously invited me inside her comfortable Quaker Hill home, where Fuller lived for many years as part of her family, and seemed proud of her work in caring for him.

"I'm happy if I made him happy," she said. "He made it to 99."

Other than visits by one of his sons and from an old neighbor, who came on Fuller's birthday until the neighbor died, Fuller did not have other visitors, Urena said.

A 2014 police investigation, begun after complaints lodged by Jancis Fuller, found "no evidence (Fuller) has been or is being abused, neglected, exploited or being taken advantage of in any way." The investigation included multiple unannounced visits to Urena's house and a review that showed Fuller was in control of his finances, which then amounted to investments and savings of about $190,000.

Cushman told me last week he negotiated a contract between Fuller and Urena in which she eventually was paid about $700 a week for care and food and lodging, with the condition that the care continue if the money ran out. He said he believes there is a small amount left in the estate. There is no accounting on file yet with the court.

East Lyme attorney Brendan McKeever, who has been appointed administrator of the estate, submitted a bill for his services to date, $4,850. He did not return my phone messages. I had a lot to ask him, including his thoughts on the request by Jancis Fuller to have the court nullify the deed giving the art museum the house.

I met with Susan Fisher, museum executive director, and David Madacsi, president of the board of trustees, and they told me no artist-in-residence program was ever developed for the Fuller house because there was no money to do that. They couldn't tell me when exactly plans for that changed, from the time it was announced as the reason for the gift and listing the house for sale in December.

At the time of Fuller's gift, the art association applied for and received an exemption from Groton property taxes on the house, now $11,460 a year, saying the house was going to be used for an artist-in-residence program. The tax collector told me last week she would investigate any means available to recover taxes that should have been paid on what has turned out to be an investment, not a nontaxable part of the nonprofit's programming.

Fisher said the museum's current endowment is about $700,000 in restricted and nonrestricted funds. She told me when we met Wednesday she expected the house to sell for less than its $628,000 asking price. The Realtors' listing status changed to pending sale Thursday.

I would suggest to whomever might have a contract to buy Fuller's charming old home on Bindloss that they might want to put aside money, not just for renovations, but for legal bills, as well.

I doubt the legal motions coming from prison in the Fuller case, all neatly written by hand and citing all the relevant laws, are going to stop any time soon.

This is the opinion of  David Collins.

d.collins@theday.com