LONDON, ENGLAND.- Christie’s announced the auction of a further 149 Scottish paintings from the internationally acclaimed Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation. In November 2001, Christie’s Edinburgh successfully offered 100 works for sale on behalf of the Foundation, which totalled £818,861. The proceeds of the sales at Christie’s will be used by the Foundation to acquire additional works.
For more than three decades, the paintings graciously adorned the walls of Flemings’ offices around the globe and represented one of the world’s finest collections of Scottish art. The corporate art collection started in 1968, when director David Donald felt his office walls were rather bare, and bought a 19th century Scottish landscape. When the American group Chase Manhattan took over the family-owned investment bank in April 2000, the family bought the collection back and set up a charity to run it called the Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation.
The Foundation will hold its first exhibition in a new public gallery in Berkeley Street, Mayfair this month. It has always been the aim of the collection that the works be enjoyed by as many people as possible and not stored away from the public eye. It is hoped that the gallery will enable the Foundation fulfil its wish to educate the public and raise the profile of Scottish art.
However, the gallery is too small to accommodate the entire collection hence the Foundation’s decision to offer some works for sale at Christie’s. Comprising over 149 lots, the second sale at Christie’s South Kensington will feature paintings by Sir James Lawton Wingate, James McBey, George Houston, Sir William Gillies, Sir William McTaggart, Alberto Morrocco and James Morrison, with estimates ranging from £200 to £5,000.
Highlights include a vibrant still life by the Aberdeen born artist, Alberto Morrocco, R.S.A. (1917-1998) entitled Flowers in a white jug (estimate: £5,000-8,000) and The Niesen, Lake Thun, Switzerland by John Houston, R.S.A., R.S.W. (b.1930) which is expected to fetch up to £2,000.