Antiques Roadshow delivers shock as painting by ‘most faked artist’ bought for £175 now worth £80,000

Antiques Roadshow delivered a surprise when a painting purported to be by Laurence Stephen Lowry – L.S. Lowry – was valued at £80,000, decades after being sold for £175.

Taking place at Stonor Park in Oxfordshire, expert Lawrence Hendra confessed that he was ‘nervous’ when he was first presented with the artwork, describing Lowry as ‘one of the most faked’ artists.

The man who brought the painting said he came across it after buying an antique bike for a good price, leaving him with some extra cash.

He revealed to Lawrence that he paid £1300 for it at the time.

Lawrence said: ‘[Lowry] was an artist of the people, he was painting the world around him.

‘He didn’t care what people thought about them, he faced all sorts of criticism, people said the arms and the legs were too long and the boots were too big.

‘It wasn’t until he retired as a rent collector in 1952 that he started painting full time. He was hugely popular and just started painting what he saw.

‘He was totally unpretentious and I think that’s why a lot of people were drawn to his work. He painted pictures of people, but they weren’t portraits, they were more studies of his surroundings and where the country was at at the time in the specific area where he lived.’

The painting luckily came with a label from the Lefevre Gallery, who represented Lowry and sold much of his art, and a letter from the gallery director sent in 1998 which said: ‘The painting by Lowry was sold by us in 1965 for £175’.

The letter made the Lowry painting legit and in turn hugely increased its value.

Lawrence explained that at auction he would expect to see the painting, called Figure Standing One, sell for around £60,000 to £80,000.

On hearing the valuation the man replied: ‘I like the sound of that.’ We would too.

Antiques Roadshow airs Sundays at 8pm on BBC One.

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