A Bermuda resident and art collector will kick off a legal bid to justify his rightful ownership of a stolen masterpiece worth millions of dollars in a London court at the end of this month.

Retired stockbroker Robin Judah initiated the court action against an American widow's claims to a Jackson Pollock artwork that she alleges was stolen from her after the artist gave it to her as a wedding gift in 1943 and turned up in his possession.

The question of the valid, legal ownership of "Composition with Pouring 1'' will be argued in the Royal Courts of Justice in London starting on November 29.

Widowed artist and teacher Mercedes Matter, of New York, claimed Mr. Pollock gave the canvas to her and her husband as a wedding present in 1943 and that it was stolen in 1946.

She never saw it again until she saw it hanging in an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, to which Mr. Judah had loaned it.

Mrs. Matter issued a writ against Mr. Judah in a bid to get the painting back. He said he purchased the painting some 35 years ago from "a reputable London gallery'' and named Mrs. Matter as the defendant in the legal-title- ownership dispute.

He later told The Royal Gazette that Mrs. Matter's allegations could not be supported and his lawyers were unsatisfied with her claims.

The action prompted her son Alex to state: "I have never heard of a situation where someone who has a painting in his possession and says he has proper legal title to that painting, then sues for the legal title of the same painting. The very idea makes a person wonder.'' Mr. Matter said the family wanted the situation resolved but noted "the cloud of the question of theft and illegal ownership'' would never be removed from the painting's history.

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