Wednesday's Art Notes

Giovanna Bertazzoni of Christie's auction house walks past Pablo Picasso's "Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto (The Absinthe Drinker)." The 1903 portrait, "which is expected to fetch between $45 million and $60 million":http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_BRITAIN_PICASSO?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT at auction, was withdrawn from sale in New York in 2006 after the heir of a Berlin banker who owned it in the 1930s claimed his ancestor was forced to sell it under Nazi intimidation. Proceeds from the June 23 sale will go to causes supported by the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation, which currently owns the painting. (Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images.) * A new book called "As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto" will be published in December. The New York Times' "ArtBeat":http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/16/new-book-serves-up-a-fresh-side-of-julia-child/ reports that the book will contain correspondence written from 1952 to 1965 between Child and DeVoto, who helped Child with the publication of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." You can listen to "Jeffrey Brown's conversation with Alex Prud'homme":http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/blog/2009/08/conversation-alex-prudhomme-co-author-of-julia-childs-my-life-in-france.html, who co-wrote Child's "My Life in France," and catch up with "The French Chef" at "PBS.org":http://www.pbs.org/juliachild/. * Britain's Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, was so moved by English soccer player David Beckham's season-ending injury, "she wrote a poem about it":http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/2010/03/16/poet-laureate-carol-ann-duffy-writes-for-injured-david-beckham-115875-22114465/. Beckham, 34, was headed for what would have likely been his last World Cup this summer before "tearing his Achilles' tendon during a match last week":http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/8572105.stm. * "The Los Angeles Times reports":http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-conan17-2010mar17,0,540516.story that Fox executives are discussing a deal that would bring Conan O'Brien to the network to host a late night show. Talks could fall apart, the Times reports, but "people close to O'Brien are cautiously optimistic."