"Same Song, Hundreth Verse" - Beaverbrook Style

How does that old song go?   Same song, second verse, a little bit louder and a little bit worse. This is the third blog entry on the ongoing Beaverbrook saga. To see the other articles please click here.  The ongoing struggle is assuming almost pathetic overtones. On one hand, the English descendants of the east coast financial magnate Max Aitken, are struggling to regain possession of an extremely expensive collection of paintings and in the other corner the Canadian Beaverbrook Gallery is struggling to hang onto a collection which they believe was permanently bequeathed to them to as an art legacy.

Who isn't surprised that the big winners are the lawyers whose legal costs have eaten up 2.8 million Foundation dollars.

CBC News (online): 

CBC News has obtained details of a proposed settlement that would have ended the eight-year-old legal dispute between the Beaverbrook Art Gallery and the Beaverbrook Canadian at Foundation. 

The two sides would have split the 78 paintings roughly evenly, based on whether they came to the gallery before or after its opening in September 1959, according to foundation documents. 

But the settlement was rejected by the Canadian foundation board, even though it was negotiated by Timothy Aitken, the foundation’s chairman and one of Lord Beaverbrook’s grandsons.

The rejection prompted Aitken to resign from the foundation, the documents show. Aitken confirmed the events in an interview with CBC News, his first on the subject. 

To view the complete news article, please click here.