Framed at the Barras: Bargain Hunt star to put fine art under the hammer at famous market
It’s the market where anything and everything can be bought and sold, but now The Barras is gearing up to host what’s thought to be its first fine art auction.
The famous Glasgow market, which is celebrating its centenary this year, will be where a number of works by artist Peter Nardini will be going under the hammer of auctioneer and Bargain Hunt presenter Natasha Raskin Sharp.
It’s part of a new venture from the arts and antiques expert that sees auctions broadcast online direct from studios and galleries.
Raskin Sharp said: “It’s going to be a first for me. I’ve been to The Barras a million times looking for antiques. There’s been quite a lot of regeneration, which has quite an arty skew, so I thought it would be a great location.
“I have long admired Maggie Mciver, who wasn’t much older than me when she founded The Barras, and had several mouths to feed. It’s quite nice that it’ll be the first fine art auction there, in the 100th year of the business. She might be looking down and saying ‘good on you girl, go for it!’”
The auction will take place in the Arti San Toi gallery, owned by Barras regular Gary Barton – better known as “Mr Glasgow” – on June 27.
On sale will be a selection of paintings by Nardini, who learned his craft at the city’s School of Art in the 1970s. After retiring from a teaching career, he went back to being a professional artist and his works include a mixture of scenes from all around the world.
Fittingly, there are a few of local landmarks, including the bandstand at Bridgeton. Nardini also used a framer in the Barras, so was delighted to see the auction bring things full circle.
Those working from home may well have had Raskin Sharp for company at some point over lockdown, as she is a regular on daytime TV favourites such as Bargain Hunt and Antiques Road Trip. She described lockdown as a “shock to the system” as productions shut up shop indefinitely.
“When it was put in place I was on location filming,” she said. “We obviously knew something was coming. We became increasingly aware of distancing, the hand sanitiser was being thrown on, and we became quite terrified. Editors are very clever people, so that’s not reflected in the episodes.
“When we came back to finish that series, the viewers won’t notice there’s a Perspex screen in the car separating us, and other provisions put in place which now just feel completely normal.”