Christie's pulls Picasso off auction after German claims ownership

Nov 8, 2006, 21:04 GMT

New York - The auction house Christie's on Wednesday withdrew a Blue Period painting by renowned Spanish painter Pablo Picasso, after a German banker filed suit to reclaim the artwork that he said was sold under duress in Nazi Germany.

'The Absinthe Drinker' painting, also known as 'Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto,' was expected to sell at 40 million dollars to 60 million dollars. Christie's had planned to auction it Wednesday at the fall season for Impressionist and Modern Art sale that began this week in New York.

Julius H Schoeps said his great uncle, Paul von Mendhelsshohn- Bartholdy, a prominent banker and art collector in Berlin, was forced to sell the painting because of Nazi persecution in 1935. Schoeps said the painting belongs to his family.

Schoeps filed a law suit in the US District Court in Manhattan to stop the sale. Judge Jed S Rakoff dismissed the request, but Christie's said it decided to withdraw the painting because of a second law suit to be filed in a separate court by the German heir.

'Despite the favourable ruling of the federal court dismissing their claims, we have been informed by the litigant's attorneys that they intend to file another suit in state court,' said Marc Porter, director of Christie's Americas.

'Christie's and our client remain confident that the underlying claim has no merit, and we reserve the right to seek damages,' he said. The current owner of the painting is the Andrew Lloyd Webber Art Foundation.

Art experts said the painting is one of the most important in the Blue Period for Picasso.

Schoeps said in his law suit that Christie's and the foundation were trying to maximize the sale price and ignored the painting's 'suspicious Nazi-era provenance.'

Schoeps is director of the Moses Mendelsshohn Centre for European- Jewish Studies at the University of Potsdam.