BIRMINGHAM, UK.-An arts fair in Birmingham will put on sale 13 works by artist L S Lowry. The works are valued at half a million pounds. This is the largest Lowry collection ever seen at an antiques fair in Britain. One of the works portrays children and is valued at £250,000. The works will be on sale at the National Exhibition Centre beginning Wednesday. The works have been authenticated and are being sold by David Smith of the Derbyshire-based gallery Neptune Fine Art.

Duncan Phillips, who organised the arts fair, said: "Lowry is now regarded as Britain's greatest 20th-century painter. His subject matter captures the spirit of industrial Britain in the mid-20th century like no other and his pictures are rising in price rapidly. The seller here has bought and sold the same piece of Lowry art three times and it has risen in value from £800 to £120,000 in the space of 12 years."