A missing Elizabeth Taylor artwork by Andy Warhol is at the centre of a multimillion-dollar lawsuit and cannot be seen by the world until it is resolved, Vogue reports.

The silkscreen print emerged only recently - despite having been created in 1964 - after the artist's former bodyguard, Agusto Bugarin, attempted to sell it at a Manhattan gallery. Bugarin asserts that the artist gave him the piece in the Eighties, but lawyers for the Andy Warhol Foundation have claimed that the former bodyguard is a "patient thief" who waited until anyone who could disprove his story had died before selling it.

The two sides came to an agreement of sorts this week, with Bugarin signing a deal to give the canvas to a fine-arts warehouse for safekeeping, Page Six reports. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Cynthia Kern, agreed to allow each side to appoint a representative to accompany the canvas to Crozier Fine Arts, Inc.

The Foundation began litigation against Bugarin last month, but now the parties are in settlement negotiations over the work.