The late Peter Barkworth, who appeared alongside Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton in the 1968 war film, Where Eagles Dare, was appearing in a play, South Sea Bubble, at the King’s Theatre in Glasgow in 1956 when he noticed that city art dealer TR Annan & Sons was offering a 1951 LS Lowry painting, The Gateway, for £60.
But even at that price, Barkworth could not make up his mind whether to buy the 14in x 18in painting. He recalled later: “I’d hummed and hawed all week.Could I afford £60?”
The dealer eventually offered Barkworth a 5% discount and the actor agreed to buy the painting.
Barkworth went on to become an award-winning London West End actor. Now, three years after his death at the age of 77, in October 2006, the £57 Lowry he owned and treasured for five decades is up for sale.
It is expected to fetch between £150,000 and £250,000 at Christie’s in London next Thursday.
Barkworth won Bafta awards for Best Actor in 1974 and 1977, and appeared in films such as A Touch Of Larceny and No Love For Johnnie.
One of his best-known TV roles was as banker Mark Telford in the 1979 ITV drama Telford’s Change.
When he died, he left more than £2 million.
The £57 paid for the Lowry painting might not sound a lot now, but in 1956 that sum represented nearly five weeks’ wages for the average
Glasgow worker.
Lancashire-born Lowry became famous for his distinctive paintings depicting life in the industrial districts of northern England.
He was 64 in 1951 when he painted The Gateway, and the following year he retired from the Pall Mall Property Company in Manchester after 42 years’ service, during which he rose from rent collector and clerk to chief cashier.
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