Picasso's portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto
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Lloyd Webber Gifts Picasso Sale's £32m to Arts

The trustees of the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation have today (20 May 2011) announced a £32 million grant-giving programme to support culture, heritage and arts projects.

The funds have been made available following Lloyd Webber's £34.7 million sale of Pablo Picasso's 1903 oil portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto or "The Absinthe Drinker" in June last year.

The painting shows de Soto, a Spanish painter who shared a studio with Picasso, sitting with a pipe and a glass of absinthe and was bought for $29.2 million in 1995.

"The Absinthe Drinker" was withdrawn from a 2006 New York auction after a previous owner claimed they were forced to sell it under duress by the Nazis. An out-of-court settlement was reached with the foundation, which allowed the painting to be sold at Christies in London on 23 June 2010. The winning bid for the Blue Period portrait was received from an anonymous telephone bidder.

The foundation have today announced a £250,000 donation to UK charity Nordoff Robbins which provides music therapy sessions in its own centres and units as well as in hospitals, day centres and schools nationwide. The charity will use the grant to maintain its unit at the BRIT school in Croydon. The charity uses music therapy and other music services to help those with autism, dementia, depression, stroke and terminal illness.

Other recipients of the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation grants include:

- by Andrew Girvan

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