EXCLUSIVE
This portrait of General Sir James Simpson by Roger Fenton, circa 1855, is among photos donated by Michael G Wilson for next month’s auction
Picture credit: Christie’s Images Ltd 2012
Photographs donated by collectors including Michael G Wilson, co-producer of the James Bond films, are set to raise hundreds of thousands of pounds for the Media Space gallery in London.
Wilson, a well-known photographic collector, is among those to have donated photographs for a ?benefit sale?, to be held at Christie?s in London on 16 May, a spokesperson for the auction house has confirmed.
As revealed by Amateur Photographer (AP) a fortnight ago, the Science Museum and National Media Museum (NMM) need to raise more than half of the £4 million needed for Media Space from private sources.
The auction of 61 images is expected to raise more than £300,000 for the gallery, which is due to open at the Science Museum in the spring of 2013.
Photographs up for grabs will include an 1846 image captured by British photography inventor William Henry Fox Talbot.
Entitled ‘Bust of Patroclus’, the earliest work in the sale is expected to fetch £10,000-15,000.
Wilson is currently working on the latest James Bond movie, Skyfall, which is due to be released later this year.
In the auction catalogue, Wilson ? who recently retired as chair of the NMM ? states that the Media Space will feature a gallery, restaurant and a ‘learning complex of approximately 20,000 square feet’.
He adds: ‘About half of the space is earmarked for exhibitions from the national photographic collection in Bradford as well as international touring shows, which seldom find appropriate venues in this country.’
Media Space will also include a studio ‘dedicated to the creation, production and display of all forms of media’.
Wilson says he has recently been approached to chair the Science Museum Foundation.
This 1846 photograph by Fox Talbot is expected to fetch up to £15,000
Picture credit: Christie’s Images Ltd 2012
