£15k for The Madonna with the Big Price Tag
THE famous topless portrait from BBC sitcom ’Allo ’Allo! sold at auction yesterday for £15,000 – three times its estimate – and was snapped up by a bidder from France.
The painting – The Fallen Madonna With The Big Boobies – by the fictional artist Van Clomp, was a central prop in the Second World War comedy which starred the late Gorden Kaye as René Artois. In the show, cafe owner Rene hid the coveted painting from the Germans by wearing it under his shirt and rolling it inside a knackwurst sausage.
For the past decade it has been hanging on a living room wall in the Midlands after its owner bought it from Shaun Moore, the production designer on the final series, at a school fundraiser in 2007.
There was a fierce international bidding war during yesterday’s sale.
Andrew Stowe, auctioneer at East Bristol Auctions, said the winning bidder was from France. He said: ‘The buyer on the phone had his entire family gathered around him, and we could hear the cheer when the hammer fell. It is a staggering result – a world record for a Van Clomp and the painting is “going home” to France.’
The portrait appeared in the show’s final episode in 1992, where, after having gone missing since the end of the war, it was discovered in the arm of a statue outside ‘Cafe Rene’.