Exhibition at Sotheby's with $25.1 million valuable art pieces

LONDON - Sotheby’s has had an exclusive evening sale of 15 paintings by L.S. Lowry, at 6 pm on 25th March 2014.

The A.J. Thompson Collection is estimated to gather £15 million extra. Mr. Lowry's collection includes famous masterpieces seen in previous exhibitions, back in 2013.

A.J. Thompson is a big fan of Lowry's artwork, therefore he collected exclusively this artist's oevre. The first painting he purchased was in 1982, at Sotheby's.

Frances Christie, Sotheby’s Head of Modern & Post-War British Art Department comments: “We are delighted with the results of tonight’s sale, which reflect the superb quality of the works that Tony Thompson collected so carefully over the course of three decades. His instinct to hone in on the very best examples of the artist’s work generated the enthusiastic response in the sale room. Underlying this evening’s success was notable international bidding for an artist who is typically considered to have a particularly British appeal. We saw participation from clients not only across Europe but also the US, demonstrating the widespread demand for this remarkable artist. These were collectors who were buying in this collecting category for the first time, as well as clients who were familiar to us but buying their first L.S. Lowry work. Tonight’s result is testament Tony’s passion for L.S. Lowry and his talent in assembling such an extraordinary collection.”

Regarding L.S. Lowry, Frances Christie comments: “The recent major exhibition at Tate curated by T.J. Clark and Anne Wagner, Lowry and the Painting of Modern Life, helped to reposition the artist within a much wider artistic context, dispelling popular assumptions that he only depicted a very simplified view of England. In fact, he was a fantastically accomplished artist who turned his remarkable skills of observation and representation to creating some of the most complex and visually compelling images of modern life painted in the 20th Century. His work captured a fast-disappearing way of life in Britain, one that is more familiar in some of the world’s emerging economies today.”