A LEGAL wrangle between an actress and a theatre over a painting said
to be worth #1.5m has ended in an out of court settlement, it was
announced yesterday.
Actress Adrienne Corri has been given the oil painting, which she
claims is by Gainsborough and worth #1.5m, by the Alexandra Theatre,
Birmingham.
Miss Corri, who starred in the films Clockwork Orange and Doctor
Zhivago, discovered the portrait of eighteenth century actor David
Garrick under beer crates at the theatre in 1977.
She painstakingly restored it by hand and spent years carrying out
research, which she claimed proved it to be an early Gainsborough.
But Birmingham art experts ruled out the possibility that it was
genuine, saying it was worth only a fraction of the valuation put on it
by the film star.
Miss Corri had maintained the initials TG were on the portrait and
that the late Sir Ellis Waterhouse, a leading Gainsborough expert,
authenticated it.
Her legal action, claiming #60,000 in payment for the time spent
researching and restoring the work of art, ended when the theatre handed
the painting to her in an out of court settlement.
Miss Corri's theatrical agents in London said she was away for a few
days and could not be contacted for comment.
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