Nearly £5 million has been run up in legal fees by the descendants of the press baron Lord Beaverbrook in an attempt to secure ownership of his legacy of some £100 million worth of paintings.

The collection of 133 paintings, drawings and sculptures which includes works by Turner, Gainsborough, Botticelli, Dali and Lucien Freud, is at the centre of a bitter legal battle between Lord Beaverbrook’s family who are trustees of the Beaverbrook Foundation, and a Canadian art gallery set up in his name.

The gallery in New Brunswick claims that the art collection were gifts from the tycoon, but the London-based Beaverbrook Foundation (UK), headed by Max Aitken, the present Lord Beaverbrook and grandson of the press baron, say that the art was on loan.

The two sides agreed to go to arbitration before a Canadian judge, Judge Cory, who awarded one third of the works to the Beaverbrook Foundation and the other two thirds to the Beaverbrook Art Gallery.

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The Foundation has now appealed against that ruling and a judgment by three appeal judges is expected just before or after Christmas.

The present Lord Beaverbrook said: “We had no option but to take this action. We wanted to formalise arrangements for the pictures between the Gallery and the Foundation and proposed a ten-year minimum loan of the pictures. At that point they challenged our ownership and that led to the dispute.”

On the extent of the legal bills incurred he said: "Litigation is extremely expensive. Once you get into court or arbitation, legal fees become eye-watering.

"It is unfortunate that you have two charitable organisations, both expending large sums of money and large fees - and the only winners at the end of the day, in terms of money spent, will be the lawyers."

The Foundation, which was set up in 1954, is a charitable trust which supports a wide range of causes including hospitals, schools and orphanages.

It maintains that it has always owned every work of art in the collection and emphasises that none is owned by any member of the family who have no intention of gaining financially by the return of the works.

The dispute has its origins with proposals in 2003 for the Canadian Gallery to return to the UK Foundation two paintings, Turner's Fountain of Indolence and Freud's Hotel Bedroom. The plan was that these would then be sold to generate funds that the Foundation could use to further its charitable objects.

In return, the Foundation would make a substantial donation of five million dollars which could then be used as a basis for further fund-raising.

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