Constable's The Lock fetches £22.4 million at auction

A PAINTING of the Stour Valley by John Constable sold at auction for a record £22,441,250.

The Lock, completed by the East Bergholt-born romantic painter in 1824, was the fifth in a celebrated series of six large-scale paintings of the valley which were exhibited between 1819 and 1825.

The Lock had been housed in Madrid's Bornemisza Museum but was sold by owner Baroness Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza, a former Miss Spain.

The sum paid at Christie’s by the anonymous buyer makes the painting one of the most expensive British works of art ever sold. It also fetched a world record price at auction for Constable.

Comments(5)

wellnow says...
9:19am Wed 4 Jul 12

just think christie's share £7mil nice eh?

Reginald47 says...
11:06am Wed 4 Jul 12

I was very chuffed to get it - it'll look really nice in the dining room.

totallyfootball says...
11:49am Wed 4 Jul 12

Oh I wish I could understand art and what someone sees is worth so much money, or is it just the fact that they have too much money?

Sdapeze says...
12:54pm Wed 4 Jul 12

A fool and his money are soon parted.

Say It As It Is OK? says...
1:13pm Wed 4 Jul 12

Sdapeze wrote:
A fool and his money are soon parted.
Ah but the fool? who bought this painting is most probably worth hundreds of millions pounds!

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