Private Vettriano collection may fetch £1.2m at auction
A PRIVATE collection of works by the artist Jack Vettriano is to be sold at auction for an estimated £1.2 million.
The collection of a dozen paintings is being sold by an anonymous Scotland-based collector of the self-taught artist, and will be sold at a special stand-alone sale at the Bonhams auction house in Edinburgh.
The collection, to be sold on March 31 in the capital, includes some of the artist’s best-known images.
None of the paintings have appeared at auction before.
Bonhams believe the sale will raise between £800,000 and £1.2m.
Chris Brickley, head of Scottish art at Bonhams, said: “This is one of the most comprehensive collections of Vettriano’s work ever assembled, covering all the major periods of the artist’s career and giving a vivid insight into his artistic development.”
He added: “It is a private Scottish collection, and the most significant sale of Vettriano’s works for about 10 years.
“It’s a really extensive and impressive survey of the artist’s work. And, because Jack’s work is so famous in reproduction, I think people really do enjoy seeing them in the flesh. We are expecting it to be a popular sale.”
Some of the images have appeared in illustrated books on the artist.
Waltzers, estimated to fetch bet ween £200,000 and £300,000, shows a couple dancing under a night sky.
This theme is one of Vettriano’s most common and relates to two other works in the sale, Road to Nowhere, which could sell for £200,000, and Missing Man, which shows figures on beaches and is predicted to reach a hammer price of up to £150,000.
Vettriano, who was born in 1951 and grew up in Methil in Fife, left school at the age of 16 and started painting in the 1970s.
He first found fame in 1989 when two of his canvases submitted to the Scottish Royal Academy sold on the first day.
Last year more than 130,000 visitors visited the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow for a 22-week run of his retrospective, making it the most visited art exhibition to go on display at the museum.