‘Largest collection’ of hand signed Salvador Dali lithographs to go up for auction in Glasgow

One of the largest collections of signed Salvador Dali lithographs will go up for auction in Glasgow later this month.

A private collection of more than 60 lithographs signed and numbered by the legendary Spanish artist will go on sale at Crombie Auctioneers in the Kinning Park area of Glasgow on Tuesday, November 24.

The pieces were discovered in the possession of a private collector in the Scottish Borders around two years ago.

The find includes about 60 original, hand-signed lithographs by the master of Surrealism. The absolute highlight of the collection is a complete, pristine set of Dalí’s legendary 1974 "Conquest of the Cosmos" (Cosmos Part 1) portfolio, an incredibly rare suite that is highly sought after by international fine art collectors.

Eric Crombie, Director & Auctioneer at Crombie’s Auctioneers, said the collection is the largest to come to auction in recent years, and far outstrips the previous

Eric said: “This was from a private collector. The collector's been collecting for about 50 years. Previous to this one, the largest collection was 10 that was found in a garage, and that went to a big auction house in England.

“We've got something like 65, and counting, so it's certainly the biggest collection ever to come to auction. It's good for us.”

The artworks were discovered two years ago in the hands of a collector who was planning to move abroad. But the extent wasn’t obvious initially.

Eric said: “The collector contacted us two years ago, explained about how they were moving abroad, and they asked for our help in terms of emptying the property to sell the stuff at auction,

“So fast forward two years, they've contacted us. They're now away abroad, and asked us to

empty the property in terms of stuff for auction,

“We knew they had a big art collection, but we didn't know to this extent. A lot of the stuff was in storage, so when we were there, we were obviously guided on the property, to where all the stuff was stored. As well as the Salvador Dalis, there are other artists as well.

“There's another Spanish artist, Adolfo Alonso, who is friends with the collector. So there's a lot of one off pieces for that, and other bits of artwork as well.

“There's over the now over 150 bits of artwork, and we need to actually go and get more,

so we're looking at probably about 180 pieces.”

The plans for the auction have opened a new avenue for Crombie’s Auctioneers, with plans to expand their offering to include Scottish artists.

Eric said: “Come January, we're looking at running a monthly art auction, featuring well known artists like Salvador Dali and other things like that, but an auction would also feature local Scottish artists and things like that.”