A UK-based charitable basis that not too long ago obtained an official warning from the Charity Fee has consigned L.S. Lowry’s Going to the Match (1953) to public sale, with a sizeable £5m to £8m estimate.
If it fetches nearer the highest finish, it may set a file for the British Modernist; Lowry’s present public sale file stands at £5.6m, achieved for The Soccer Match (1948) in 2011.
The later portray, which depicts followers submitting into the now-demolished Burnden Park (the earlier base for the Bolton Wanderers), is being offered by The Gamers Basis, a charity involved with supporting gamers and former gamers, which was previously a part of a wider Skilled Footballers Affiliation.
The latter obtained an official warning following an inquiry into a number of considerations round mismanagement between 2013 and 2019, together with an alleged “failure to make sure its property have been being utilized in essentially the most applicable manner”. The regulator has acknowledged steps to treatment the failings have since been made.
The work, which was painted for an exhibition sponsored by The Soccer Affiliation, is because of be offered at Christie’s Fashionable British and Irish artwork sale in London on 19 October, having been purchased by the charity for £1.9m from Sotheby’s in 1999, when it quadrupled its pre-sale estimate. At the moment, the sum was a file for Lowry—a outcome the then-chief government of the charity, Gordon Taylor, described as “value each penny”.
Immediately, Nick Orchard, Christie’s head of Fashionable British and Irish artwork, describes Going to the Match as “iconic”. The portray is, he provides, “instantly Lowry, but a timeless celebration of soccer, the gorgeous recreation. That is what makes this such an amazing second for his market”.
Described by the public sale home as “arguably the best-known portray by the artist”, the canvas has beforehand been exhibited at Salford’s The Lowry and on the Salford Artwork Gallery.
A spokesperson for The Gamers Basis says in an announcement: “The trustees recognise the present monetary disaster means we want all of the earnings we are able to get hold of, and all our property need to operate for us to make sure our ongoing work. We wish to proceed to help individuals with dementia and supply benevolent grants to these in actual monetary want, amongst different issues. This has led us to the inevitable choice that the Lowry needs to be offered within the pursuits of our beneficiaries.”
