Lloyd Webber to auction Picasso to benefit charity

Picasso's 'Angel Fernandez de Soto,' a 1903 work from the artist's Blue Period.

NEW YORK - Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber's foundation will sell a Picasso portrait that is expected to fetch over US$40 million ($65.8 million) at auction, with the proceeds being donated to charity, Christie's said.

The 1903 work from the artist's Blue Period, Angel Fernandez de Soto, will be sold at Christie's fall auction of Impressionist and modern art on November 8.

The haunting portrait of Picasso's close friend, who he met in 1899 in Barcelona and with whom he remained friends until de Soto's death during the Spanish Civil War, is expected to sell for US$40 million to US$60 million.

In recent years, Picasso portraits have achieved remarkable prices. His Boy With a Pipe holds the record for any art sold at auction at US$104 million, while a 1941 portrait of his mistress, Dora Maar with cat, exceeded US$95 million this spring -- more than double the expected sale price.

"We are thrilled to offer a work of such stature by Picasso," said Guy Bennett, Christie's head of Impressionist and modern art in New York. He added in a statement that the oil-on-canvas was "one of the most personal and powerful works from the Blue Period."

The record for a Blue Period work is US$55 million, set in 2000 by Woman with arms crossed.

Lloyd Webber, the theatre composer known for a string of hits including Cats, Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar and The Phantom of the Opera, which in January became the longest-running show in Broadway history, bought the work in 1995 for US$29.1 million.

He will make no personal gain from the sale, Christie's said, with the proceeds benefiting "a variety of charitable purposes" which were not identified.

- REUTERS