/ Source: The Associated Press
A judge ruled Tuesday that a Picasso painting can be sold at auction, despite a claim that its former owner was forced to sell it to the Nazis in the 1930s because his family descended from Jews.
U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff issued the order four days after Julius H. Schoeps, an heir to Berlin banker Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, filed a lawsuit in Manhattan to stop the sale.
On Tuesday, the judge had temporarily blocked the auction of "Portrait de Angel Fernandez de Soto," that is expected to fetch up to $60 million.
The painting was scheduled to be sold at Christie's on Wednesday as part of its Impressionist and Modern Art sale.