It was interesting to see just how saleable Spencer's work is, very little was left unsold. The bidders were a mixture of dealers and those, like myself, who love Stanley's work and wanted an example of it. Unfortunately the high prices meant that not everyone got what they wanted. This resulted in prices rising significantly towards the end of the sale as people realised they could be going home empty handed. The most extraordinary example was lot 217, a roll of lavatory paper with a short phrase on each sheet, presumably notes for a lecture. The estimate for this item was £1-200, however there was a great deal of competition among the private buyers and it eventually went for £420, having started at £25. I just hope the buyer wasn't expecting it to contain drawings!

Drawings of Hilda, Stanley's first wife, were much in demand, largely, I suspect, because they are beautifully observed. I imagine that they were mainly bought by dealers because a small, badly marked, drawing of Hilda sitting in an armchair went for £5000. Presumably this will be cleaned and framed and re-appear on the American market for several times the sale price. There were a number of oil paintings included in the sale including a very badly damaged oil of the passage at Lindworth (Spencer's home) which had obviously been rolled up for many years. This was estimated at £3-5000 but went for a ridiculous £9500. It's a very dark, uninteresting painting and makes me wonder just who would want it. In the entire sale realised £390,390, which should take care of the daughter's needs for a few years.

There was also a sale of twentieth-century British art the next day. This included three Spencer paintings. One of these I was amazed to see was "Long Looking Glass" (estimate £250-350,000) which is illustrated in Bell's catalogue on page 523. The reason for my incredulity was that Bell describes the work as of 'uncertain attribution'. According to the Catalogue Raissone the painting has an uncertain provenance, being undocumented prior to being given, as a gift, to the present owners, presumably Shirin and Unity. This lack of documentation is highly unusual as Spencer wrote obsessively about his paintings and made long lists of them. In addition Bell says the quality of the painting is uneven and the composition "peculiar". He suggests that the work is at best partially by Spencer, though has doubts about why anyone other than Spencer would have painted it, except as a parody. A friend tells me that a recently discovered drawing seems to relate to this work and that the most likely explanation is that Spencer abandoned the work and that Patricia finished it, selling it to raise money. Whether this was during Spencer's lifetime or not it is impossible to tell. Ken Pople tells me that the work was withdrawn from sale, though I suspect we haven't seen the last of it! Has anyone got the catalogue of the sale containing Professor Bell's comments, as I would like to study them in detail? I would be interested to learn what has happened to the painting if it was sold.

ZACHARIAS AND ELIZABETH

The Tate Gallery in conjunction with the Graves Gallery, Sheffield, has recently acquired this superb early work (1913-4). They jointly raised £1,141,578 to purchase the work from Mary Bone; whose father Muirhead Bone bought it from Spencer circa 1920. Muirhead Bone was the person who began the train of events that lead to the Burghclere chapel (and Church House) by asking Spencer to design war-memorial for the village of Steep in Hampshire.

ANGELS OF THE APOCALYPSE

This beautiful work from the Port Glasgow resurrection series (1945-50) was sold by Christies on November 27^th 1997 for £628,500. It is catalogued as belonging to a private collector. Presumably now that Spencer's work fetches such incredible sums we will see an influx of paintings onto the open market. In some ways this is a shame, as many are still owned by people who actually knew Spencer and supported him through his financial difficulties. Conversely it means that the public have a chance to see these works, as many will be bought by public galleries.

TATE MODERN AND TATE BRITAIN

This is the name given to the new Tate gallery which opened at Bankside on May the 12^th 2000. It is the most incredible space, a beautiful conversion of what was once a power station. It's opening means that the Tate is able to show 50%  of its collection rather than the 20% on show at Millbank. I strongly recommend a visit; The Tate Gallery at Millbank became Tate Britain on March the 24^th. It is now fully open with a large extension that increases its gallery space by a third.