A Canadian art gallery can keep the bulk of a disputed multi-million dollar art collection, an arbitrator announced in Fredericton on Monday.
The works acquired by New Brunswick's Beaverbrook Art Gallery before its opening 1959 were gifts from Max Aitken, the original Lord Beaverbrook and founder of the gallery, Retired Supreme Court judge Peter Cory ruled.
But the paintings sent to the gallery after its opening belong to the Beaverbrook U.K. Foundation, Cory said in his decision.
Of the 133 works, 85 are staying with the gallery while the other 48 belong to the foundation.
The long-awaited decision ends one chapter in an international tug of war over the treasure trove of art works, which include valuable paintings by Botticelli and Salvador Dali.
The Beaverbrook U.K. Foundation had been claiming ownership of the works of art with the current Lord Beaverbrook, Sir Max Aitken, claiming the pieces were merely on loan.
But gallery officials asserted that the first Lord Beaverbrook intended the treasures to be gifts to his home province.
Gallery to keep its 'gems'
Bernard Riordon, director and CEO of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, said while 48 of the artworks are heading back to the foundation, the gallery gets to keep the "core of the collection."
"All of the gems of the collection are in the gallery's favour," Riordon told Â鶹´«Ã½net in an interview from Fredericton.
"So we consider it quite an important decision, again related to what our founder wished."
The dispute boiled over in 2004, when the current Lord Beaverbrook said he wanted to sell two paintings in the collection to raise money for the foundation and its activities, including a donation to the gallery itself.
Aitken had also said he wanted to sell some of the paintings to raise funds to renovate the family estate, Cherkley Court, in Surrey, England.
One painting he wanted to sell was "Hotel Bedroom," by Lucian Freud, one of the most critically respected British artists currently alive. The work is estimated to be worth US$5 million.
The other was British master J.M.W. Turner's "The Fountain of Indolence," which could be worth as much as $25 million.
While the arbitration was between the Beaverbrook U.K. Foundation and the gallery, court proceedings are still pending between the Beaverbrook Canadian Foundation and the gallery. Both foundations are directed by Beaverbrook grandsons.
In total, more than 200 paintings and sculptures, believe to be worth $200 million, are in dispute.
The original Lord Beaverbrook was born William Maxwell Aitken in 1879 and raised in New Brunswick. He moved to London in 1910 where he made his fortune as a Fleet Street press baron.
During the Second World War, he served as a minister under Winston Churchill. He died in 1964.
With files from The Canadian Press
