Lowry’s painting, ‘Going to the Match’ from 1953 depicts a bustling throng of football fans gathered at the former home of Bolton Wanderers. It won Lowry first prize in a 1953 exhibition, which was sponsored by The Football Association.
The painting, last came up for auction in December 1999, just days away from the new millennium and the dawn of the new technology that has changed all our lives and turbo charged the Art and Auction world.
The estimate back then was £700-900,000 which was itself a world record estimate and the final price of £1.9 million was also a new record which stood for almost 10 years! ‘Going to the Match’ was bought by Graham Taylor, bidding via phone, on behalf of the Professional Footballers Association, (PFA) the footballer’s Trade Union.
From the auction it went on long term loan to the Lowry in Salford, where until April this year it was on permanent display to the public.
Last night in London, 22 years on, it was back on the auction block, again with a world record estimate of £5-8 million and after a fierce auction battle it deservedly made a new world auction record price of £7.8, far exceeding the previous record for a Lowry of £5.6 million set in 2011.
The PFA recently transferred ownership of the picture to their charitable arm, the Players Foundation so that now all the sale proceeds
will go towards helping those in need. Even better, thanks to the generosity of the Law Family charitable trust run by Andrew and Zoe Law, the Lowry Gallery in Salford were able to bid successfully at the auction and so now they will soon have their visitor’s favourite Lowry picture back again on the wall in Salford Quays so we can all enjoy it now and into the future.
