Salford mayor wants footballers to buy £8m Lowry painting for public

The work will be sold at Christie's in London on 19 October

A mayor has called on the "footballing community" to fund the purchase of a Lowry painting valued at £8m so it can remain on public display.

The Players Foundation (PF), the Professional Footballers' Association charity, intends to auction LS Lowry's Going To The Match in October.

It had previously loaned the 1953 work to Salford's Lowry arts centre.

Salford Mayor Paul Dennett said "finding £8m-plus wouldn't be too difficult" for the area's footballers.

The PF said the financial crisis meant it had to sell "in the interests of our beneficiaries" as it "no longer has any income guaranteed, so we have had to completely reposition".

'Truly tragic'

In a series of tweets, Mr Dennett said he was "exceptionally worried" about what would happen to the work if it was sold into private hands and called on Greater Manchester's footballers to fund a purchase for the public good.

"Wouldn't it be truly tragic if this iconic LS Lowry painting... was sold to a private collector and ceased to be free to access by people here in the City of Salford as it has been for the past 22 years?" he said.

"I'd like to make a personal plea for the footballing community here in Greater Manchester to look at retaining this painting for the people of Greater Manchester.

"There's a lot of money in that community, so finding £8m-plus wouldn't be too difficult."

The painting won Lowry first prize in an exhibition in 1953

Lowry, who died in 1976, spent much of his life in Salford and his work is strongly associated with the city.

Going To The Match was one of a number of paintings he did on the theme of sports.

It won Lowry first prize in a 1953 exhibition, which was sponsored by The Football Association, and was last auctioned in 1999, when it was acquired by the charity for about £2m.

The work will be sold at Christie's in London on 19 October.

Nick Orchard, the auction house's head of modern British Irish art, said Lowry "mastered a distance in his art that offered him the opportunity to present his viewers with an entire scene unfolding before them".

"There is no greater example of this than Going to the Match," he added.