Los Angeles (CNN) -- Actor Ryan O'Neal choked up on the witness stand Wednesday as he told a jury he would be crushed if an Andy Warhol portrait of longtime companion Farrah Fawcett is taken from him and given to the University of Texas. Fawcett died of cancer in 2009 and left her artwork to her alma mater. The university is suing O'Neal for the portrait, which hangs in the bedroom of his Malibu beach house. "I talk to it. I talk to her." O'Neal said, his voice choking with emotion. "It's her presence in my life and her son's life. We lost her. It would seem a crime to lose it."
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Actor Ryan O'Neal tells a jury he doesn't want to lose a portrait of Farrah Fawcett
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He and the late actress were an on-again, off-again couple for some 30 years
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Pop artist Andy Warhol painted two nearly identical portraits of Fawcett
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Her alma mater, the University of Texas, has one and is suing O'Neal for the other
He also described several other dinners the couple had with @placeholder.
And then she say, 'A friend of mine, you know, his name is @placeholder, painted that for Ryan and he did one for me, too.'"