Style and Art

A federal judge decided to allow the auction of the Picasso painting “Portrait of Angel Fernández de Soto”. The judge dismissed a lawsuit from Julius H. Schoeps, an heir of the painting's original owner. Mr. Schoeps claimed that his great-uncle, Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, a Berlin banker and art collector, was forced to sell the painting because of Nazi persecution in 1935.

While skeptical of Mr. Schoeps claims the judge dismissed the case on a technicality, stating that federal laws pertaining to Holocaust restitutions did not apply on this case.

The current owner of the artwork, the Andrew Lloyd Webber Art Foundation, ignored its “suspicious Nazi-era provenance”.

The painting is expected to be sold today in Christie's acution of Modern and Impressionist art, and Christie’s has estimated that it will fetch between $40 million and $60 million dollars.