L.S. Lowry Painting Commands $8.8 Million; Records for Works on Paper

20 November 2011

"Piccadilly Circus, London'' (1960) by the 20th century British artist L.S. Lowry sold for 5.6 million pounds ($8.8 million) at Christie's in London on Nov. 16.

(Christie's)

click to enlarge

Herny Moore's Shelter Drawing: Seated Mother and Child, sold for £634,850 at Bonhams.

(Bonhams)

L.S. Lowry's "Piccadilly Circus, London," from 1960, recently sold for £5.6 million ($8.8 million) in London at Christie's International. The painting was from the collection of U.K hotelier Charles Forte. Of the fourteen Lowry paintings offered by the Forte estate, "Piccadilly Circus" was the most expensive.

In May, another Lowry painting, "The Football Match," sold for the same price at the same auction.

Lowry (1887-1976) is best known for his scenes of industrial English life of the early twentieth century, and Forte began collecting his paintings in the 1960s.

Works on paper by Lowry and Henry Moore also set auction records at a 20th Century British and Irish Art sale at Bonhams that totaled £4,150,000 on Nov. 16.

Moore's 1941 drawing of a seated mother and child sold for £634,850 and a 1939 drawing of Swinbury Station sold for £121,250, well over its presale estimate of £50,000–80,000.

(Report: Alisa Alexander for ARTFIXdaily)

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