Avinash Chandra painting realises £16,000
The Conservative-led Leicestershire County Council has sold works of art that they have deemed surplus at auction for More than £170,000. This included an important painting by the late Avinash Chandra which realised £16,000.
The works mostly used in schools were purchased between 1970 and 1990. A total of 318 pieces of art have been auctioned off so far and 12 more works are due to be sold on Tuesday. The authority said the money raised from the sales would be reinvested in its museum service and supporting Leicestershire’s arts and heritage service. David Sprason, the county council’s cabinet member for Adults and Communities said: “Like the rest of the country, we are experiencing a tough economic climate at present and are continuing to investigate different ways in which we can raise money. The first 65 pieces were put up for sale by Bonhams in November last year, when 58 were sold. Six of the unsold lots and a further 70 works were auctioned on February 22, when 59 were sold.
None of the pieces of artwork relate to Leicestershire’s heritage or fall within the agreed museums collections policy for the County Council’s museums or outreach collections.Council leader David Parsons said: “Items which have been locked away, out of public view, have been sold and we’re using the money to reinvest in the council’s arts and heritage service. “When we began this process I had no idea that the council owned so many valuable works of art”. The latest three paintings to be sold were by Paul Feiler, a German artist who moved to Britain and who has pictures hanging in major art galleries around the world.
This follows Bolton Council’s sale of art in July. Cash-strapped local authorities are selling bits of their art collections to raise funds. Two important Picasso etchings are among almost 35 works of art auctioned or to be auctioned by Bolton council. A painting by the Victorian Pre Raphaelite artist John Everett Millais, that may have inspired the novel The Woman in White, has already been de-accessed by the Council for £74,400. The painting, titled The Somnambulist was estimated at £80,000-100,000, A bargain basement price for such an important work, by a highly regarded British Painter. It is one of several artworks earmarked to to pay for a new museum storage warehouse.
ALREADY SOLD
Avinash Chandra: Offering – £16,000
Frederick Gore: Red Landscape – £5,500
Fred Uhlman: New York at Night – £5,200
Bryan Kneale: Time Balance – £4,600
Alfred Daniels: Hammersmith Regatta – £3,800
PREDICTED SALES
Paul Feiler: City Shapes I – £8,000-£12,000
Paul Feiler: Cobolt and Cerulean – £5,000-£8,000
Christopher Wood: Mother and Child – £5,000-£8,000