Three paintings by the Prince of Wales which were sold at auction on Tuesday, have been identified by Buckingham Palace as lithographs rather than original watercolours. The paintings, which had been expected to go for between £500 and £800 each, eventually fetched a total of £20,700 at auction amid a flurry of publicity. However, the Birmingham based auction house which handled the sale, Fellows & Sons, may now have to return the money after the Palace clarified the exact nature of the artworks.
“They won’t be the Prince of Wales’ s paintings because he does not sell them,” said a Palace official. “It sounds to me that they are not what they seem. The price they sold for would be an average price for lithographs. His paintings do not go on the open market and he does not give them away.”
The three pastoral watercolours – which feature a winter scene of Sandringham dated 1987, a view of the Scottish peak Ben Avon from 1989 and a rendition of Balmoral Castle dated the same year – fetched £7,300, £6,000 and £7,400 respectively. They are believed to have been purchased from a Royal Variety Club auction in 1990 and were offered for sale by a private collector who does not wish to be identified.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
The 1987 winter scene of Sandringham (above) fetched £7,300 and is similar to another watercolour used by the Prince's Trust for its 1990 Christmas greeting
Photo: © Alphapress.com
The work A View Of Balmoral Castle landed the highest bid at £7,400
Photo: © Alphapress.com
A View Of Ben Avon fetched £6,000, bringing the total for the three works to £20,700
