A small fortune

A small fortune

A PAINTING smaller than a piece of A4 paper by one of Jersey’s most famous artists is expected to fetch £500,000 next month.

If the work entitled ‘Wedding Cards’ by Sir John Everett Millais does attract that sort of figure at auctioneers Christie’s, it will make it a remarkable investment. Some 50 years ago, it was sold for 280 guineas — just £294.

Among those expected to join the bidding is the multi-millionaire impresario Andrew Lloyd Webber. The man behind ‘Cats’ and ‘Evita’ already has 11 pictures by the Jersey artist.

The value of Millais’s work has soared in recent years. In 1999, a new world record for one of his pictures was set when his painting ‘Sleeping’ sold for £2,091,500. The sale featuring ‘Wedding Cards’, on 5 June in London, will be a celebration of the 179th anniversary of Millais’s birth on 8 June 1829.

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