Andrew Lloyd Webber's Picasso set for auction at Christie's

The masterpiece will be offered at an auction in London on June 23, 2010, and is estimated to fetch between 30 million pounds and 40 million pounds ($45 million and $60 million).

The 1903 portrait, from Picasso's Blue Period, is being sold by composer Andrew Lloyd Webber's charitable foundation. Proceeds will go to the foundation, which promotes arts and culture in the UK, and paid 29.2 million US dollars for it in 1995.

The painting is of a fellow artist with whom the young Picasso shared a studio. It was withdrawn from sale in New York in 2006 after the heir of a Berlin banker who owned it in the 1930s claimed his ancestor was forced to sell it under Nazi intimidation.

U.S. courts threw out the lawsuit, and Christie's said the issue had now been resolved "by agreement."

Jussi Pylkkanen, president of Christie's Europe, Russia and the Middle East, said it was one of the most important works of art to be offered at auction in decades.

He said: ''It is worth celebrating the fact that all proceeds from this historic sale will benefit arts, culture and heritage in Britain.''