A British artist once said to be worth nearly £100m has been declared bankrupt—and his remaining paintings are now being sold off. Forty nine portraits by Andrew Vicari are on offer at London-based SIA auctions, with opening bids of £30 to £200 being sought. The SIA catalogue states that Vicari was “once the official painter to the King and Government of Saudi Arabia”, although he is “largely unknown in Britain”.
The Sunday Times Rich List, which in 2006 valued Vicari at £92m, described him as “the Port Talbot-born son of an Italian restaurateur” and gave the unlikely story that he was the youngest student to be admitted to the Slade, at the age of 13, where he trained under Francis Bacon. The newspaper wrote that in 1991 Prince Khalid of Saudi Arabia bought 125 of his Gulf War paintings for £13m and he later won a £25m commission for “the world’s largest oil painting”. Three years ago Vicari was declared bankrupt. He is now aged 78.
The Vicari portraits that are being auctioned following the bankruptcy proceedings include 17 paintings, mostly dating from 2004-06. Done from photographs, they depict Margot Fonteyn, Laurence Olivier, Ravi Shankar, George Bernard Shaw, Frank Sinatra and other celebrities. There is also a group of sanguine drawings, including portraits of Jean-Paul Sartre, Tennessee Williams and Igor Stravinsky. As of today (11 August), no bids had been placed on any of the works, which are being sold in an online auction which finishes on 26 August.