Lowry's Piccadilly Circus equals artist's 5.6m record at major auction

He is best known for his paintings of matchstick men walking against a  background of bleak northern mill towns.

But one of LS Lowry's few paintings of London became the most expensive of the artist’s work in the world yesterday after it was sold for a record 5.6million.

The 1960 oil painting of London’s bustling Piccadilly Circus, which had not been seen in public for nearly 30 years, was last night sold at Christie’s auction room just a stone's throw from the iconic junction.

It shares the record for the most expensive Lowry piece to be sold, matching the one set by ‘The Football Match’ when it was sold in May.

The artwork, which was part of hotel tycoon Lord Forte’s collection for almost  three decades and has never been auctioned before, was sold to a mystery telephone bidder.

It depicts Piccadilly's famous fountain, topped by the famous statue of Eros amid a throng of red buses and scurrying figures.

The painting shows advertisements for Coca-Cola, Bovril, Max Factor  and Wrigley’s on the famous hoardings overlooking the junction.

It was one of 14 Lowry oil paintings from the late Lord Forte’s collection to be sold for a total of 17.7million last night by his descendants.

The auction house described the selection as ‘undoubtedly the highest quality  group of works by the artist to come to the market’.

Three other paintings were auctioned off for more than a million pounds.
‘Fun Fair at Daisy Nook’ from 1953, which depicts mill workers in Lancashire  celebrating Good Friday, sold for 3.4million and ‘Saturday Afternoon’ from 1941, which shows figures playing football and cycling at the weekend in front of an imposing factory building, went for 2million.

An unnamed 24x36in industrial landscape sold for 2.6million.

Lowry painted only five London scenes, of which two depict Piccadilly Circus.

An earlier painting of the junction dating from 1959 was sold in June 1998 for 562,000, which was at the time a record price for the artist.

But at 20x24in, the artwork was much smaller than the 30x40in painting sold  yesterday.

Although the scene of Piccadilly Circus looks very familiar, much of what is in  the painting has changed in the past five decades.

The area underwent reconstruction in the late 1980s when the fountain at the  centre of the junction was moved to its present location on the south-west corner.

The only company depicted in the painting to be still advertising on the famous  hoardings, is Coca-Cola, which has now taken the place that Bovril takes in the  painting.

Lord Forte, who died in 2007, built up his worldwide leisure empire after opening a milk bar on London's Regent Street in 1935, at the age of 26.

The peer, who died in 2007, had held many of the paintings for decades.
Lowry lived in Greater Manchester, and became famous for painting industrial landscapes peopled by distinctive figures with thin bodies and large heads.

Lowry, who died in 1967, claimed to be a 'simple man' who could not understand  modern art, but is now treated as a major artist, with much of his work exhibited in a purpose-built museum in Salford.

He was a notoriously private man who hated publicity, and was secretive about his job at the Pall Mall Property Company, where he worked for decades to support his artistic career.

The sale comes at a buoyant time for the art market, which is seen as a relatively safe place to invest money during this period of turmoil in other markets.