Loft full of paintings - what do I do?

[CHOCOLATEPEANUT]

My mothers brother died suddenly last year. He was a well known local artist drawing scenes of old Salford. Copies of his works are in Salfords Musuem.He exhibited in Salford Art Gallery and did drawings to order for around £300 each.

The local paper did a feature on him when he died and the local gallery said that they would consider doing another exhibition and would put it on thier schedule. I sent a catologue of his works and they said they have to consider the genre of the work and not run exhibits that 'clash'

They have not come back to me yet.

I have around 120 drawings in the loft and I dont know what to do,where to start? Should I sell them if so how or hang onto them. They represent the old Salford and bit by bit this is being torn down so I suppose in time they will be more valuable?

I would keep them together for a while if you can afford not to sell them off CP. They will certainly become more valuable in time, and if the local gallery have changed curatorial focus (what they've said sounds like a bit of a damper to me and I've often put shows off like that) you may want to consider an alternative venue.

Propose a retrospective to them - get a decent curator working with you and generate a bit of PR about his life/work and the collection could well grow significantly in value.

The art market is slow atm.
Could you hold onto them for a few years until the economy is better, bearing in mind you would need to insure them in the meantime?

I'm not finding it slow - bizarrely I'm finding our sales are not down on last year. I can think of at least two money-savvy buyers who are investing their cash in art rather than in the bank!

I dont know where to start really. I am not a bit 'arty' but he was very well thought of as a local historian that it makes me feel very sad that they are all stored away and nobody can enjoy them

You could loan them to the museum on condition they display a portion of the collection for the duration of the loan?

• I should also have added that if you do this they will archive and store the work properly for you which would be good.

Hey Pottycock, talking of paintings, my DP (artist too) found an original AC Gould in the charity shop for a fiver recently and his work is going for £1-3.5k on eBay etc...how would we go about getting it valued? Can you recommend anywhere? He is a late Victorian impressionist, royal academy member, son of Sir Francis Gould.

Sorry to hijack OP , I just didn't realize Pottycock did this (my kirk st compatriot!)

Hello BOF!

My first port of call would be either a museum officer in Somerset, or locally to wherever else he may have been based. They will be able to give you information and possibly point you in the direction of an expert in his work specifically. Or you could just go to an auction house? I don't know if they would charge for a valuation but I would expect they would.

Thankyou for that, I hadn't thought of trying the somerset route, I'll let you know how I get on