TARZAN’S loincloth is at the centre of a bitter custody dispute.

The material used by Johnny Weissmuller, who played the ape man role on film 12 times in the 1930s and 1940s, has been on display at the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for decades.

But now his terminally ill son Johnny Weissmuller Jnr, 65, is demanding it back so he can pass it on to his heirs. The loincloth is among a collection of mementoes that Weissmuller, who was an Olympic swimmer in the 1920s, gave to the museum after he became its founding chairman in 1965.

The family also wants the star’s five gold and one bronze Olympic medals and swimming trunks that he wore at the 1928 Games.

“They are mine,” Mr Weissmuller Jnr said. His wife Diane added that her husband wanted something to leave to his children and grandchildren. “They have no legacy, they have nothing of their grandfather’s and great-grandfather’s,” she said, saying that they hoped to place the artefacts on show elsewhere.

Bruce Wigo, president of the Hall of Fame, said that Weissmuller, who died in 1984, made it clear that he wanted the items to be kept at the museum on public display.

He said that the family had failed to produce a copy of the will to back their claim and he doubted their motives.

The Weissmullers have hired lawyers.