LLOYD WEBBER FIGHTS OVER PICASSO OWNERSHIP
British composer ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER’s art charity is battling in court to sell a $66 million (£33 million) PICASSO painting that is alleged to have been looted by Nazis.
The theatre impresario’s charity has begun proceedings at London’s High Court to prove once and for all that it owns The Absinthe Drinker - a study of an effete young man with a glass of the spirit.
The action comes after the 1903 portrait of Picasso’s close friend, Angel Fernández de Soto, was suddenly withdrawn from auction at Christie’s New York last year (06) when Professor Julius Schoeps, a German academic, claimed the Nazis forced his Jewish great-uncle to sell it.
Last week (ends25Nov07) a U.S. judge dismissed the case after finding out that Professor Schoeps did not have the right to sue.
Lloyd Webber’s charity - set up in 1992 to advance public art education - is now seeking a "negative declaration" to prove its ownership.
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