In what's being called the court case of the century, Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza will attempt to wrest control of his $2.8 billion empire from his son Georg in Bermuda's Supreme Court beginning Monday.

The saga involves a Bermuda trust which is the holding entity of the sprawling Thyssen Bornemisza conglomerate with interests in ships, glass, plastics, car parts, trading companies, agricultural machinery and information systems.

Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza is attempting to win back control of the trust which he set up in 1983 through Bermuda law firm Conyers Dill & Pearman.

While the Baron receives an annuity from the trust he is going to court to try and set the terms of the Continuity Trust aside by taking his eldest son Georg Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza and the trustees to court. He claims his son and the trustees used undue influence and an abuse of confidence in setting up the trust to his disadvantage.

The trial will be held in new court space in the refurbished Booth Memorial Hall on Court Street, the former headquarters of the Salvation Army.

The case, which is being heard by Puisine Judge Denis Mitchell, could take from six months to a year to be completed. Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza's lead lawyer Michael Crystal has said he needs six weeks just to make the opening presentation.

A week has been set aside for Georg's lead lawyer Alan Boyle to make his opening argument for the defence. Lawyer Nicholas Patten has been scheduled to take another week for his opening for the corporate defendants. The corporate defendants are Thybo Trustee Ltd., Tornabuoni Ltd. and Favorita Holdings Ltd.

Favorita is the holding company of the TBG Group of Companies, the main asset of the trust.

The court will break in June while some issues regarding the court case are heard before the Bermuda Court of Appeal. Witness are not expected to be called until after a court break in August.

The case is expected to attract world wide attention, especially from a media keen to reveal details about one of the world's richest families as the Baron begins accusing his son of prejudicing the interests of his four other children.

Ironically the Baron apparently set up the trust to keep the conglomerate together and avoid the problems with inheritance when his father died and the empire, which includes one of the world's largest art collection, was broken up among the siblings.

Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza, who is a citizen of Switzerland, was once considered the owner of the world's second-greatest private art collection after that of the Queen. He spent a lot of energy after his father died buying back the collection from the rest of his family.

He is married to former Spanish beauty queen Carmen Cervera, his fifth wife.

Soon after the marriage he deeded his immense art collection to Spain's specially constructed Thyssen-Bornemisza museum in 1993.

She has told the European press that there was a deep family rift over the fortune.

"The war has started,'' she is quoted as saying. "This is going to be the court case of the century. This goes to the heart of one of Europe's most important families.'' That move of the art collection was initially opposed by some of the children who wanted the collection to stay in the family's Swiss home at Lugano.

According to The European, each child would receive a tenth of the inheritance while wife Carmen Cervera would receive half under Swiss law.

BUSINESS BUC