Chinese buyer sought for Picasso’s Absinthe Drinker

The composer Andrew Lloyd Webber has placed Picasso's outstanding 1903 blue period Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto (The Absinthe Drinker) with Christie's for sale in June. With a fairly low pre-sale estimate of £30m, the salesroom is clearly hoping that dueling bidders will push the price to £40m at least.

The last time a Picasso of this quality came to market, an unknown Russian man with a paddle at the back of the room near the press pen caught Sotheby's off-guard with a $95.2 million bid for the artist's Dora Maar With Cat.

This time, Christie's officials are looking to make another BRIC nation sales splash by suggesting the painting could appeal to a new Chinese buyer. "There is a new breed of Medici-style collectors who want to buy exceptional art from any period," Giovanna Bertazzoni, head of Christie's London-based Impressionist and modern department (pictured with the 'Absinthe Drinker'), said in an interview.

Underpinning confidence in the June 23 sale is the record $65m that billionaire collector Lily Safra paid for Alberto Giacometti’s bronze Walking Man I at Sotheby's in February.

The art valuers believe the market for top-rated masterpieces is buoyant. This summer, the salesrooms have two more potential record breakers on offer: a 1932 Picasso portrait of his mistress Marie-Thérése Walter, Nu au Plateau de Sculpteur, which could fetch $100m, and a Jasper Johns flag for a estimated minimum of $50m.

But the Absinthe Drinker - a portrait of Picasso's friend Angel, who "was more dedicated to drinking and partying than to art" - has a clouded provenance.

The painting was scheduled for auction in 2006 but abruptly withdrawn after Julius Schoeps, a German academic, claimed ownership arguing that his Jewish grandfather Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was forced to sell the painting in 1934 as a "consequence of Nazi persecution".

At the time, Christie's described the claim as an "ambush" and it was ultimately dismissed by a New York court. In December, a settlement was announced with the agreement details kept confidential. "The claimants have withdrawn all claims to the painting, leaving the Foundation free to sell the work," Christie's said in a statement.

Lloyd Webber is now selling the portrait, which he acquired in 1995, to benefit his Art Foundation, which promotes arts, culture and heritage causes in Britain. ·