£92.5k for Painting of Amritsar in London auction

A London –based taxi driver bought a painting after haggling for £40 sikh painting at a car boot sale has eventually sold it of the hammer price of £75000 with added fees making it overall £92,250. His taxi currently off-road with a flat tyre. Auctioneers at Roseberys said interest in it took off after the bidders identified the subject matter as being the historic town of Amritsar in Northern India with the Golden Temple, the holiest religious complex of the Sikh religion. Potential buyers did fierce bidding on the painting which inflated the price of the painting.

Lot 131 depicted a scene of the walled old town of Amritsar with Golden Temple *(Harmandir Sahib) in the background which is considered the holiest gurdwara, or religious complex, of the Sikh religion the work surprised bidders from across the globe who contested across seven telephone lines and in the room. The lot was eventually snapped by an anonymous bidder on the phone.

Director and specialist Peter Greenway phoned the vendor after the auction “ It was great to tell the vendor how well his picture had done., when he told me he had a bad day as his cab had a flat tyre and he was not able to go to work. Having heard the good news he decided to take the week end off.”