The £34.7 million sale of a Picasso painting looted by the Nazis during the war is to be used to fund upcoming musical theatre stars.

Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto, also known as The Absinthe Drinker became one of the most valuable paintings sold at auction in Europe after it was sold yesterday at Christie’s.

The Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation purchased the painting for £18million in 1995 and decided to sell it to fund stage bursaries for underprivileged children.

The sale was postponed in 2006 in New York after Julius Schoeps claimed his family had owned the painting and had been forced to sell it to the Nazis in the 1930s.

The claim was settled out of court earlier this year, allowing the sale to go ahead.