Stolen Paintings by the British artist LS Lowry worth an estimated £1.7m have been recovered by the North West Regional Crime Unit. The works were stolen from collector/dealer Ivan Aird in a violent raid at his Stockport,. home in 2007. They included two paintings and three pencil drawings. Tanker Entering the Tyne is valued at £600,000 and The Viaduct £700,000 while the drawings are estimated to be worth tens of thousands each.The Viaduct painting was previously owned by iconic British actor Sir Alec Guinness.
The works were found in Merseyside and two men have been arrested and charged with handling stolen goods.In total, 14 paintings and drawings were taken, as well as a pallette and brush set used by Lowry. Casey Miller was jailed indefinitely in 2009 for another robbery. He burst into Mr Aird’s home after his wife opened the door while holding their two-year-old daughter. Miller entered the house brandishing a 10-inch knife dressed as a postman. Miller from Denton, threatened to kill the family while three others scoured the house for the best examples of Mr Aird’s collection of Lowrys. Aird had known Lowry as a boy and the painter was a friend of his fathers in Salford. Malcolm Shields, 41, from Arncliffe Road, Halewood, was due to appear at Liverpool magistrates’ court today charged with handling stolen goods and possession of Class A and B drugs with intent to supply. Kevin Marlow, 32, of no fixed abode, was also charged with handling stolen goods and appeared at the magistrates court yesterday afternoon. He was remanded in custody and will appear at Liverpool Crown Court on September 8. Erin Edwards, 32, also from Arncliffe Road, Halewood, was charged over the drugs only and was due to appear alongside Shields today.
Laurence Stephen Lowry (1 November 1887 – 23 February 1976) was an English artist born in Barrett Street, Stretford, Lancashire. Many of his drawings and paintings depict nearby Salford and surrounding areas, including Pendlebury, where he lived and worked for over 40 years at 117 Station Road (B5231), opposite St. Mark’s Roman Catholic Church. Lowry is famous for painting scenes of life in the industrial districts of Northern England during the early 20th century. He had a distinctive style of painting and is best known for urban landscapes peopled with human figures often referred to as “matchstick men”. He also painted mysterious unpopulated landscapes, brooding portraits, and the secret ‘marionette’ works, the latter only found after his death. Because of his use of stylised figures and the lack of weather effects in many of his landscapes he is sometimes characterised as a naïve ‘Sunday painter’ although this is not the position of the galleries that have organised retrospectives of his works. A large collection of Lowry’s work is on permanent public display in a purpose-built art gallery on Salford Quays.