Court Blocks Picasso Sale

Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber's art foundation has temporarily been stopped by a U.S. judge from selling a Picasso painting worth up to $60 million (31.6 million pounds) after a German claimed he owned the piece. The painting from Picasso's Blue Period, "Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto," is due to be sold at Christie's in New York on Wednesday and the auction house has valued the piece at between $40 million and $60 million. But Julius Schoeps has sued Lloyd Webber's foundation, saying he is an heir of a Jewish banker from Berlin who was forced to sell the painting in 1934 as a "consequence of Nazi persecution." A U.S. Judge temporarily halted the sale of the 1903 painting, also known as "The Absinthe Drinker," until the matter is heard on Tuesday. For the full story - click the title Irish Art