Charity to benefit from Picasso sale

British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber’s foundation will sell a Picasso portrait that is expected to fetch more than $40 million at auction, with the proceeds being donated to charity, Christie’s said Friday.

The 1903 work from the artist’s Blue Period, “Angel Fernandez de Soto,” will be sold at Christie’s fall auction of Impressionist and Modern art on Nov. 8.

The record for a Blue Period work is $55 million, set in 2000 by “Woman With Arms Crossed.”

Lloyd Webber, the theater composer known for a string of hits including “Cats,” “Evita,” “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “The Phantom of the Opera,” which in January became the longest-running show in Broadway history, bought the work in 1995 for $29.1 million.