A leading British newspaper has said the Baron Thyssen case will go down in legal history as "one of the most expensive ever fought''.

The Independent newspaper, a daily broadsheet, reported yesterday that the case was of `mind-numbing complexity' and a `source of unimaginable riches' for the team of English lawyers in Bermuda to hear the case.

The article -- featuring a picture of one of the legal teams heading to court and taken by The Royal Gazette's David Skinner -- focuses on the champagne lifestyles of the lawyers who have been flown for the case. There has been much international interest in the legal battle between the famous super-rich art collector Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza and his also super-rich eldest son Georg.

The case, in which the 78-year-old Baron is suing his 49-year-old bachelor son for control of a trust set up in Bermuda worth $2.7 billion, has been going on in the Supreme Court in Bermuda since October.

Lawyers add dash of colour to Thyssen case While the case has failed to provide the public mud-slinging keenly anticipated by the world's Press, the colourful lawyers, who earn millions of dollars a year, have made the case a bit more interesting.

And The Independent has taken a look into the lifestyles of the men and women in silk.

The paper's legal affairs correspondent, Robert Verkaik, wrote: "By the time the case, which is being played out in a specially built Bermuda court, has finished, the lawyers are expected to have earned an estimated 60 million -- and lived for up to five years on one of the world's most exclusive paradises.

"This week one of the fifteen UK lawyers who has swapped his London home for a Bermudian mansion, said the case would go down in legal history as one of the most expensive ever fought -- legal sources on the Island estimate that the cost of the case is now running at 368,000 a week.'' It focuses on the three of Britain's highest earning barristers who are on the case, Michael Crystal QC, Robert Ham QC, and Alan Boyle QC, who are all members of the "million a year club'' -- lawyers in Britain who earn more than 1 million pounds a year.

The article states: "The legal expenses are quite extraordinary, with `uplifts' of around 10 percent on the standard legal fees, which is paying for monopolising the talents of some of London's finest silks for such a long period of time.

"The parties are also picking up the relocation costs of moving London-based lawyers and their families to Bermuda.

"Such is the personal wealth involved that the escalating legal costs are unlikely to help bring about an early settlement. In fact it appears the reverse is true. The baron, his son, and the trustees, have all agreed to pay for a new court room to hear the case.'' The article also focuses on the new light-weight robes worn by the lawyers and lavish parties given by the silks.

"Mr. Crystal and Mr. Ham have attracted the most attention on the Island, notably for their extravagant parties. They share a 10,00-a-month mansion just outside Hamilton, the Island's capital, where their neighbours include David Bowie, Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones.

"At a party just before Christmas, hosted by the two QCs, they booked a jazz band and disco and in a spirit of conviviality invited the lawyers representing the other side. But at the 11th hour a chamber's memo went round banning the lawyers representing Heini Jnr and the trustees from fraternising with the opposition.'' SUN, SEA AND SILKS... Colourful: Some of the lawyers in the Thyssen case. This is the picture that appeared in The Independent BUSINESS BUC