Here’s Sotheby’s take on their £3m Scottish sale which had few runaway surprises but still was able to continue breathing life into the category:
Sotheby’s sale of Scottish Art in London on 22 November 2016 brought a total of £3,167,875 ($3,953,191), exceeding the pre-sale low estimate (£2.4-3.6 million). The auction was led by one of John Lavery’s finest golf paintings and an exceptional group of works by the Scottish Colourists. Elsewhere, a 19th-century view of Loch Lomand by John Knox commanded the second-highest auction price for any work by the artist.
Simon Toll, Sotheby’s Scottish Art specialist, said: “We’re delighted with the results, which build upon the success of last November’s relaunched Scottish Art sale. We saw strong prices for the Colourists and for contemporary Scottish artists, and an exceptional outcome for Lavery’s quintessentially Scottish golf painting, which more than doubled its estimate. The remarkable response to our pre-sale exhibition at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh carried through on the day of the sale, with interest from both new and established collectors, 80% of the lots snapped up, and 50% of the works sold achieving figures above the high estimate. Following the momentum sparked by our recent sale of David Bowie’s art collection, prices for Peter Howson, John Bellany and Ken Currie went beyond expectations.”
