Judging panel to hear appeal for Beaverbrook art dispute

The two sides in a dispute over works of art at Fredericton's Beaverbrook Art Gallery have chosen the three retired judges who will hear an appeal ofan arbitration decision last March.

The panel will be chaired by Edward Bayda, a former chief justice of the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal.

He was selected by the two other judges: Coulter Osborne, former associate chief justice of Ontario, who was chosen by the gallery, and Thomas Braidwood, a former member of the British Columbia Court of Appeal, who was chosen by the Beaverbrook U.K. Foundation.

Both sides had agreed to the appeal mechanism at the beginning of the arbitration process.

Arbitrator Peter Cory had awarded ownership of 85 out of 133 paintings to the gallery, with the remainder going to the foundation.

The 85 included the most valuable works in the collection, including J.M.W. Turner's The Fountain of Indolence and Lucian Freud's Hotel Bedroom.

The gallery had argued that Lord Beaverbrook gave the works to New Brunswickers as gifts when he built the gallery in the late 1950s. The foundation, chaired by his grandson, the current Lord Beaverbrook, contended the paintings were on loan.

The March decision also ordered the foundation to pay the gallery $2.4 million in compensation for several paintings it removed from the gallery over the years. They includedone by Thomas Gainsborough and two by George Stubbs.

The appeal hearing willbe in Fredericton but is not expected to begin until April at the earliest.

Meanwhile, Peter Cory is expected to deliver his decision on who should pay the legal costs of last year's arbitration.

The Beaverbrook Foundation has said its legal bills were $7 million. The gallery has received a total of $4.5 million in assistance from the New Brunswick government to help cover its legal costs.