Lloyd Webber gets go-ahead for art sale

British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber's art foundation has been granted permission to sell a valuable Pablo Picasso painting, after a German collector's ownership claim was dismissed in court.

The sale, scheduled for later today at Christie's auction house in New York, was temporarily halted earlier this week after Julius Schoeps maintained Portrait Of Angel Fernandez De Soto was his heirloom.

However, his case was dismissed yesterday with a spokesman for the foundation branding the claims "utterly spurious, without legal or factual substance".

He added: "During the eleven years the charity has owned the picture no-one has previously raised any questions about the ownership.

"It has been exhibited publicly several times at the National Gallery as well as the Royal Academy of Arts in London and the New York Fine Arts Fair."

The painting is expected to fetch as much as $60m (€47m), with all proceeds going to a variety of arts charities.