When art expert Dominic Cox entered a home to view a collection of largely Victorian pictures, he was expecting it to be a routine visit.
But Dominic, a painting specialist with Scarborough-based auctioneers David Duggleby was in for a major shock when his eye was caught by a striking image.
The picture, at the home in Whitby, was Don Quixote, painted in 1961 by the abstract expressionist Julio Pomar (1926-2018), one of the most renowned Portuguese artists of the 20th century.
Dominic said: “The paintings I had been invited to look at were nice quality, although not particularly exceptional – but then I happened to catch sight of the Don Quixote on a wall at the top of the stairs. Wow!
“You may or may not like abstract art but surely almost anyone would concede that the picture is striking. It certainly got my attention.
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“The vendor inherited the painting from his father, a Scottish art dealer, who bought it in Edinburgh in 1989 for £89. He and his wife had no strong feelings about the picture and they were unaware of Pomar’s importance – or the potential value.”
The painting was entered in David Duggleby's Spring Art Sale in Scarborough last Friday (March 17).
Dominic said: “Our initial assessment was that it could make £5,000 to £8,000 - but when the auction catalogue was published things went absolutely crazy.
"Significantly the majority of the enquiries that we were taking were coming directly from Portugal or from people in this country with Portuguese connections.”
“We went into the auction with five bidders on the telephone lines - all but one of them in Portugal - countless people registered to bid on the internet and with a clutch of advance commissions.
"Bidding opened at £7,600. Within seconds we had sailed past £10,000 and it kept on going.
"At the death it came down to a straight battle between a Portuguese dealer bidding on the telephone and the eventually successful buyer, a private collector bidding on the DD Live Internet platform from London.”
He added: “The result caused astonishment in the room. Actually it even surprised the vendor, who was present to watch the auction.
"After the gavel had fallen he approached the rostrum and briefly interrupted the sale of the next lot to shake my hand. That was an unusual gesture but much appreciated.”
The painting eventually sold for £23,000 a record UK price for the Pomar, rivalling values that the artist’s work is achieving in Portugal.
Another jaw-dropping result during the sale was achieved by a charity shop find – a watercolour painting depicting ‘Richmond from the East’ by the landscape artist Harold Sutton Palmer (1854-1933).
“Apparently the vendor picked it up for £2 from the charity shop in Driffield,” said Dominic.
“It sold for £1,300. What a find. What a return!”
Other noteworthy results in the auction include:
• £17,500 paid for Lionel Townsend Crawshaw’s painting ‘Pulling Up The Cobbles Runswick’, sent for inclusion in the auction by an Australian vendor and achieving a new record price for the Staithes Group artist.
• £6,600 paid by a private collector for Archibald Thorburn’s watercolour ‘Grey Headed Yellow Wagtail’, a record price for one of the paintings commissioned from the great ornithological artist for Lord Lilford’s Birds of The British Islands.
• £4,500 paid by a prominent London dealer for Dame Laura Knight’s study of the ballet dancer Lydia Lopokova.
The unsigned chalk and charcoal sketch was authenticated after research carried out by Dominic and the Duggleby team.
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