A nasty spat between Lord Beaverbrook and Lady Dunn proves the press baron always intended his paintings to be simply on loan to the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, the British foundation fighting to claim them argued on Tuesday.

The two sides are in arbitration over the ownership of the paintings worth more than $100 million.

Lawyers for the Beaverbrook U.K. Foundation on Tuesday disputed suggestions that Lord Beaverbrook tried in 1960 to reclaim paintings he had donated to the art gallery.

The foundation's lawyers argue it's unlikely, given that he fought Lady Dunn's attempt to do the same.

The tale told by foundation lawyer Kent Thomson on Tuesday of that particular spat — with a woman Beaverbrook would later marry —could have come straight out of a society gossip column.

Lady Dunn, the widow of Beaverbrook's good friend Sir James Dunn, was angered by the press baron's remarks at the official opening of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in 1959.

She felt Lord Beaverbrook's speech gave, in her words, "short shrift" to Salvador Dali's Santiago El Grande, a painting she had donated on behalf of the Sir James Dunn Foundation.

Lady Dunn wrote to Beaverbrook: "It is more than a grief to me. It is a crime."

She decided to take back three paintings by British painter Walter Richard Sickert that she'd given to Beaverbrook, which he'd put in the gallery.

Beaverbrook quickly hired a lawyer to block Lady Dunn from reclaiming them.

Three years later, Beaverbrook, 84, married the 53-year-old Lady Dunn, making her Lady Beaverbrook.

Last week, lawyers for the Beaverbrook Art Gallery suggested the press baron had second thoughts about having given away the works of art.

The gallery says Beaverbrook gave the paintings as gifts to New Brunswick, and after a sudden change of heart in 1960, tried to reclaim paintings.

The foundation says the trust agreement that governs it shows that it owns the paintings and proves Beaverbrook always intended them to be on loan to the gallery.