OPERA Gallery has sent a lawyers' letter in response to its lease dispute with landlord Toshin Development, requesting that the premises be reopened by this Friday afternoon.

Toshin is the management company for various specialty stores in Ngee Ann City, where Opera Gallery has occupied a space for the past 12 years.

Meanwhile, over 300 art pieces - including a few Picassos - worth some US$20 million remain sealed-off in the premises.

'As your clients have cut the power to the premises, the alarm system and the CCTV cameras that are in place to protect the said items and valuables no longer work,' Opera Gallery's lawyers said in the letter.

Opera Gallery has requested that the premises be reopened by this Friday at 4.30 pm. 'Our clients' representatives including their insurance company's representatives will be present,' the letter said.

A spokesman for Opera Gallery told BT yesterday that he had yet to hear from the other side. He added that it would probably have to find an interim location.

According to the letter, after midnight on Feb 1, Toshin representatives tried to get the gallery to vacate the premises by boarding up most of it and cutting the power. 'Our clients conveyed their position that they are entitled to remain in possession and that if there was a Court Order, it should be served on them. No Court Order was served on our clients.'

According to a media report, Toshin had found a new tenant, one that 'provides a better retail mix'.

Opera Gallery said that it had not withheld any rent payments.

The gallery, whose lease expired on Jan 31, was told in March last year that its lease would not be renewed. However, some months earlier, the gallery had carried out renovations costing $300,000, with Toshin's approval, said the spokesman.