A legendary London gallery that was recently priced out of its Mayfair home is to sell more than 300 of its artworks at auction.
The Fine Art Society's major sale, which will take place at Sotheby’s auction house on February 5, will see works by the likes of American artist James McNeill Whistler, British avant-garde painter Gluck and pop artist Sir Peter Blake go under the hammer.
Earlier this year, The Fine Art Society sold the lease on its New Bond Street location, where it had been based for 142 years. The gallery cited rising rents and “the soaring level of the Westminster Council’s business rates”. It has since relocated to offices in Chelsea.
The Fine Art Society is the oldest commercial gallery in London and the first to move into Mayfair in the nineteenth century, helping to establish the district as the centre of London's art world. The gallery was an early exponent of the one-artist exhibition, presenting a groundbreaking solo show of work by Whistler in 1883.
The sale will also include versions of the Peter Pan statue in Hyde Park by George James Frampton, which has an auction estimate of between £80,000 and £120,000, and a cast of Albert Gilbert's Eros statue in Piccadilly, which has an estimate of up to £150,000. The gallery will also be selling a print of the Fine Art Society's flag, which was designed by Blake in 2012 to hang outside the New Bond Street premises.
The Fine Art Society: 142 Years on New Bond Street will take place at Sotheby's on February 5 2019. For more information, visit sothebys.com
