Christies of London played host to a 20th Century Art auction on Friday (6th June 2008) with some very special paintings going under the hammer. Manchester born and raised artist LS Lowry was the talk of the auction.

'An Old Church' (1943) was expected to sell for upto £1m due to it not being seen in public for 40 years. The painting however failed to sell at auction with speculation being down to a slightly high reserve price. Also failing to sell at the auction, was Lowrys' 'Manchester City vs Sheffield United' from 1938. The painting was again expected to fetch £1m. However it was sold privatly after the auction for a un-disclosed sum of money.

Selling well at the auction however was 'A Cricket match' which sold for the upper end of its estimate at £770,000 ($1.5m). With his 'Seascape' canvas selling for over £60,000 more than its Quater of a million Pound reserve.

Christies announced at a press conference shortly after the auction had ended that the days auction had netted a little over £11.5m ($22.7m)