Picasso out of NY auction amid ownership claims

NEW YORK, Nov 9 (Reuters) British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber's Art Foundation has withdrawn a Picasso painting worth up to 60 million dollars from a planned Christie's auction amid claims by a German man that he owns the piece.

The Lloyd Webber foundation and Christie's said ownership claims by Julius Schoeps meant a ''cloud of doubt has been recklessly placed'' on the ownership of the painting from Picasso's Blue Period, ''Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto''.

Schoeps sued the Lloyd Webber foundation on Friday, saying in a federal complaint that he was an heir of wealthy Jewish banker Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy from Berlin and that the banker lost the painting in Nazi Germany in a ''forced sale.'' According to the lawsuit, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy ''never sold any works from his private collection until after the Nazis came to power.'' Then he began selling his works into a depressed market because many Jewish collectors were selling their art.

A US judge on Monday briefly halted the planned auction, but gave the go ahead for the sale on Tuesday and dismissed Schoeps' case, saying it was ''abundantly clear'' that the case lacked federal jurisdiction.

The foundation said best evidence suggests the painting was sold after Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's death in 1935 by his second wife, who was not Jewish.

''The joint decision (to withdraw the painting) was the result of 11th-hour claims -- claims that Christie's and the Foundation believe to have no merit -- about title to the picture,'' the art foundation and Christie's said in a joint statement yesterday.

Lawyers for Schoeps, who is from Berlin, have said they planned to pursue the claim in New York state court.

The 1903 painting, also known as ''The Absinthe Drinker,'' was valued by Christie's at between 40 million dollars and 60 million dollars . Proceeds from the sale of the painting were to go to charity.

Lawyers for Christie's and the foundation questioned why the suit was filed now considering that the sale of the painting to the foundation in 1995 for 29 million dollars was widely publicised.

''The Foundation reserves the right to seek damages for the harm caused to the portrait and the charity, which rightfully owns it, by the unfounded and spurious claims brought by Julius Schoeps and his attorneys,'' the foundation said yesterday.

REUTERS DH BST0505