A watercolor done by King Charles III sold for nearly 10 times its initial estimate on Thursday, CNN reports. The work, made in 2001, represents the royal residence of Balmoral, Scotland, where Queen Elizabeth II died on September 8.
“In my career as an auctioneer, I have never seen so many bids before an auction,” said Hamish Wilson, officiant at British auction house Bonhams, which is responsible for the sale of the royal watercolor.
“This castle now has a new resonance”
The work, estimated at 600 pounds (about 689 euros), was finally sold for 5,737.5 pounds (about 6,589 euros). That is almost 10 times more than expected. The Bonhams site indicates that the watercolor was signed and dated in pencil, accompanied by a box and a certificate of authenticity.
The sale, which took place online, included around 100 Balmoral paintings. The auctioneer started the bids at 3,000 pounds (3,440 euros). According to CNN, Hamish Wilson indicated that the interest in this sale could also be explained by the fact that Balmoral Castle was the place of Elizabeth II’s death.
“This castle now has a new resonance for the country and for the whole world,” he said.
A “relaxing and therapeutic” exercise
It is the first time that a work by Carlos III has been offered at auction. The new monarch is known for his love of painting, which he has already described as “one of the most relaxing and therapeutic exercises”.
Last January and February an exhibition had even been organized in London with the paintings of the still Prince of Wales. The exhibited works showed landscapes from Scotland and France. of the magazine the scottishCarlos III had admitted that his “first works were failures”, while specifying that painting allowed him to “invigorate parts of the soul that other activities fail to satisfy”.
In 2016, the royal family indicated that Carlos had recovered 2 million pounds from his activity as a painter since 1997, a sum donated to charity. Indeed, the monarch sells lithographs of his watercolors at his country house shop in Gloucestershire.
Source: BFM TV
