Picasso set to fetch over £30m
This Pablo Picasso masterpiece owned by Andrew Lloyd Webber is expected to raise more than £30m for his charity when it goes under the hammer in June, says Christie's.
The portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto, also known as The Absinthe Drinker, was painted by the Spanish artist in 1903.
It is being offered with a pre-sale estimate of between 30m and 40m – the highest for any work of art ever offered in Europe. The proceeds will go to the Andrew Lloyd Webber Art Foundation, which paid $29.2m for it in 1995. It is considered the most impotrant work to be auctioned in Britain for decades.