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U.S. judge blocks Lloyd Webber's NY 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 after a German man 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," court documents showed on Monday.
Read entire article at Reuters