$88 thousand, the price of a painting by David Bowie, which was bought by its owner for five dollars
A painting drawn by British singer David Bowie and bought years ago by an individual from a charity store for five Canadian dollars was sold for more than 108 thousand Canadian dollars (88,000 US dollars) during an online auction, the Canadian auction house announced on Friday.
The initial estimate for the painting was between 9,000 and 12,000 Canadian dollars (7,300 to 9,800 US dollars), and 12 bidders were bidding for it, according to Rob Cowley, president of Cowley Abbott Auctions in Toronto.
The panel measures 20 by 25 centimeters and represents a side face. It was first sold in 2001 on a website dedicated to the British singer, and the painting, titled "D-Head XLV1", ended up in a charity shop in Ontario, where it was bought anonymously for C$5 ($4.10). This buyer later contacted Cowley Abbott Auctions.
"The painting was painted between 1995 and 1997 and is one of a series of paintings by David Bowie (titled 'Dead Heads'), representing the artist himself or his relatives," the house's president, Rob Cowley, explained earlier. He noted that it bore Bowie's signature and dated 1997 on its reverse side.
David Bowie's paintings are rarely auctioned, the first time one of his works has been auctioned in Canada, according to Cowley.
The rock singer, who died of cancer at the age of 69 on January 10, 2016, left a great impact in the fields of music, cinema, fashion and art, and during his career, about 140 million copies of his albums were sold.
