£10 Lowry painting kept 99 years sells for £805,200 at auction

A British newspaper editor bought an LS Lowry painting for just £10 in 1926 and kept it in his family for almost a century. Now, 99 years later, the early industrial scene has sold at auction for £805,200, including the buyer’s premium, after remaining in the same family’s collection throughout that period, The Guardian reported.The painting, Going to the Mill, was sold at Mall Galleries in central London on Friday, 2 May last year. Created in 1925, it was purchased directly from Lowry by Arthur Wallace, then literary editor of the Manchester Guardian. Although the work was marked at £30 on the back, the artist agreed to let Wallace have it for £10.How Lowry sold the painting for £10Wallace’s grandson, Keith, recalled how his grandfather acquired the work. According to him, Lowry proposed the lower price, after which Wallace wrote a cheque.