Webber wins Picasso painting lawsuit

Lloyd Webber`s art foundation has won the legal case over a Picasso painting.

London: English composer Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber`s art foundation has won the legal case over possession of a Picasso painting.

The 61-year-old musician bought ‘The Absinthe Drinker’ (Angel Fernandez de Soto) painting in 1995 for 18 million pounds and later donated it to his educational charity. However, Julius H Schoeps, an heir to German banker Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, filed a lawsuit for ownership, insisting his ancestor was forced to sell the masterpiece after fleeing the Nazis in the 1930s. In 2006, a judge issued a temporary ban preventing the Foundation from selling or displaying the painting publicly while the dispute was ongoing. But von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy`s heirs have recently released a statement confirming they have reached a confidential agreement and have now relinquished claims of ownership - and the ban is no longer in place. "The Trustees of The Andrew Lloyd Webber Art Foundation are pleased to announce that Professor Julius Schoeps and all other heirs of Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Elsa von Kesselstatt have settled and relinquished any and all claims of title in the Foundation`s painting The Absinthe Drinker (Angel Fernandez de Soto) (1903) by Pablo Picasso," a news daily quoted a spokesman for the Foundation as saying. ANI