Lenkiewicz auction fetches £2.1m

The 36ft-long (11m) The Temptation of St Antony fetched £170,000

An auction of paintings from the collection of the late Devon artist Robert Lenkiewicz, has made £2.1m, more than twice the estimate.

The 532 lots from the artist's estate were sold at Westpoint, near Exeter, to clear debts.

The top price of £170,000 was paid for the 36ft-long (11m) canvas depicting The Temptation of St Antony.

Lenkiewicz died in 2002 aged 60, and according to the executor of his estate he left behind significant debts.

The artist, who never had a bank account, had 11 children by a number of mistresses and left just £12 in cash.

The auction took place over nine hours with about 3,000 people attending.

Five years ago another sale of 600 lots made more than £1m.

Robert Lenkiewicz's stature has grown since he died said auctioneers

Auctioneer Richard Bearne told BBC News: "For a long time Lenkiewicz was thought to be a South West artist, but since his death he has grown in stature.

"Some critics were quite sceptical about his work when he died, but I think they have been proved wrong.

"Prices are increasing all the time for his work."

When Lenkiewicz died he had work in progress, including The Temptation of St Antony, at seven different studios on and around the Barbican in Plymouth.

The sale included work which spanned the whole of the painter's life, with drawings and sketches from the 1950s when Lenkiewicz lived in Hampstead, to work completed in the year of his death.

Some of the Plymouth artist's artefacts sold included furniture, beds, skulls, dresses, books, studio artefacts and artist's materials, all of which were in use at the time he died.

Alongside paint brushes and paints, there were dozens of palettes just as they were left in situ, covered with large daubs of primary colour paint.

Examples from the Lenkiewicz Library included a dusty group of leather-bound bibles and books on erotica, witchcraft, vampirism and sexual fantasy.