The arts center paid £7.8 million, including fees, for Going to the Match, painted in 1953, at auction on Wednesday night. The purchase was made possible by a gift from the Law Family Charitable Foundation, which was founded by hedge fund manager and Conservative party donor Andrew Law and his wife, Zoë. The painting was estimated to cost £5-8 million. Julie Fawcett, chief executive of the Lowry, said: “We strongly believe that this iconic work of art should remain on public view so that it can continue to be seen by the widest possible public, free of charge. “Tonight, thanks to an incredibly generous gift from the Law Family Charities, we are delighted to purchase Going to the Match 1953 for the City’s LS Lowry Collection. We look forward to bringing it to Salford where it can continue to enjoy and attract visitors to the Andrew and Zoë Law Galleries at the Lowry.” Andrew Law said: “This LS Lowry painting belongs in Salford on public display, close to his birthplace, where he was educated and where he lived. The place matters. LS Lowry’s depiction of people watching a football game is just one of his many incredible types of work, but it is undoubtedly his most iconic.’ The painting has been on public display at the Lowry arts center for 22 years, after being bought in 1999 by the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA), the association for current and former players, for £1.9m. At the time, Gordon Taylor, then chief executive of the PFA, said it was “quite simply the best football scoreboard ever”. The PFA decided this year to sell the painting after its charity arm became a separate body, the Players Foundation, as part of a reorganization prompted by a warning from the Charity Commission. Bidding for the painting opened at £5 million at Christie’s sale of modern British and Irish art. “It was selling for a good cause,” the auctioneer told in-person and telephone bidders. The Players Foundation helps current and former players with issues such as education, pensions, health and legal issues. Last month, Paul Dennett, the mayor of Salford, and Fawcett made a joint appeal for the painting to remain in public ownership. After the auction, Dennett said: “We strongly believed that Going to the Match should remain in public view, open access for all to see. I am delighted that our campaign to save this critical and important painting has successfully resulted in the Lowry securing it tonight, for the city of Salford in perpetuity for generations to come, for the residents and visitors of our great city.” Lowry, famous for his stick-like figures and industrial scenes of north-west England in the mid-20th century, created a series of football paintings, of which Going to the Match is the best known. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. The stadium in the painting was Burnden Park, the former home of Bolton Wanderers, near Lowry’s home in Pendlebury. It was demolished in 1999 and the site is now a retail park. In addition to the crowds flocking to the turnstiles, the painting shows busy terraces inside the stadium, around the houses and factories in the background. “Going to the match is about the emotion, the excitement, the crowd gathering, the group experience,” Nicholas Orchard, head of contemporary British and Irish art at Christie’s, said ahead of the sale. “Lowry was a great observer of people, particularly in the industrial landscape, and these football games really captured the essence of what Lowry was trying to get across in his paintings.”
