Jack Vettriano painting sale raises £86,000 for charities

Published on Saturday 12 February 2011 13:06

THE sale of an original Jack Vettriano painting and limited-edition prints of the image featured on the First Minister's Christmas card has raised £86,000 for charity.

The sale was made in St Andrews, with the painting going for 68,000 and prints sold for 18,000.

The painting, called Let's Twist Again, featured a dancing couple at a festive party and was used on Alex Salmond's card for 2010. The previous three cards raised about 50,000 for charitable causes.

Money from the latest card will go towards the Bethany Christian Trust, Maggie's Cancer Caring Centres, Quarriers and Teenage Cancer Trust.

Vettriano said: "I'm really pleased that Let's Twist Again has achieved such a positive result for the four charities.

"It has been a privilege to be involved with such worthwhile causes and I'm grateful to the First Minister for his continuing support."

Salmond said: "Jack is a great supporter of good causes and his distinctive style is recognised around the world.

"He has proven himself time and again to be Scotland's painter of the people."

The Bethany Trust said its share will support homeless and vulnerable people in Fife, where the painter was born.

The Teenage Cancer Trust intends to put its share towards a specialist unit at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh.

Last week it was announced that a sombre self-portrait by Vettriano will become the first work by the painter to go on show in the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh.

The Weight, showing the 59-year-old artist sitting sideways on a bed, deep in thought, is on loan for three years and will take a prominent place at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery when it reopens later this year.

Vettriano welcomed the announcement as a career benchmark, after years of feuding with the galleries over their refusal to include him in the national collection.

Despite the artist enjoying commercial success, the National Galleries have long declined to buy or show Vettriano's pictures, with curators and critics dismissing them as badly painted.

But last week the portrait gallery director James Holloway said: "Jack Vettriano is one of the world's best known Scottish artists. I am delighted that his self-portrait will hang in the new gallery."