$100 Million Art Challenge

A high-stakes hearing is underway that pits a Canadian art gallery against an aristocratic British family in an ownership battle over millions of dollars worth of art - paintings and sculptures. A retired Supreme Court of Canada justice is the arbitrator in a legal showdown over the fate of more than $100 million worth of art treasures that have been housed at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, Canada for more than four decades. A British foundation run by Sir Max Aitken, the third Lord Beaverbrook, is claiming that 133 of the art works are only on loan to the gallery and should be returned, including one landscape by English artist J. M. W. Turner valued at $25 million. The current Lord Beaverbrook has experienced high-profile financial problems. Recent British newspaper reports state the Bank of Scotland has issued proceedings in the High Court to recover £615,508 British pounds from Aitken. For the full story - click the title Irish Art