Multi-million pound sale of painting catapults Scots-born artist into the limelight and into the premier league

The National Galleries of Scotland is keen to buy a painting by Peter Doig, who last week became Europe's most expensive living painter.

Doig's painting White Canoe sold for five times its expected value at an auction in Sotheby's in London last Thursday, fetching £5.7 million.

The huge sum means that Doig's work is now worth more than paintings by living legends such as David Hockney and Lucian Freud. He also financially outstrips some of Scotland's best-known painters, including Peter Howson - who is collected by Madonna - and John Bellany.

The National Galleries of Scotland said it was now interested in acquiring a Doig piece although it is not actively pursuing any of his paintings.

Philip Long, senior curator at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, said: "Unlike some modern artists, Doig's work has a broad appeal. Some people like the imagery while others are fascinated by the composition and admire the quality of his work.

"We would like to have a Doig piece in our collection. His international importance and Scottish connection makes him very attractive to us."

Doig was born in Edinburgh in 1959. However, he moved from the capital at the age of two when his family emigrated to Trinidad then Canada.

He later returned to the UK to study at the Chelsea School of Art in London, where he lived for a further 23 years. Five years ago the artist moved back to Trinidad.

As White Canoe, painted in 1991, was auctioned in Sotheby's by a private seller, Doig will only be entitled to 12,500 (£8300), the maximum that can be paid out under the artists resale royalty scheme.

However, Doig should reap the benefits in the future. It is expected that the record amount fetched at Sotheby's will inflate the price of the work he sells through the gallery that represents him, Victoria Miro, in London.

Philip Schlesinger, director of the Centre for Cultural Policy Research at Glasgow University, said he would like to see a painting by Doig in Scotland's national collections - but only if it was affordable.

"Obviously it's desirable to have something by a painter who's become a globally recognised success, but feasibility is another thing," he said.

"A national collection should recognise work produced within the nation and by people from the nation, but galleries also have a role to reflect the wider world."

"We get an inexpensive reflected glory from the achievement of someone who hails from Scotland," he added.

Guy Peploe, grandson of Scottish colourist Samuel Peploe and managing director of The Scottish Gallery, Scotland's largest and oldest private gallery, said that it was "reassuring" that a painter from the YBA Young Brit Artists generation, which includes Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and the Chapman brothers, "is being recognised commercially".

While he was not surprised that the National Galleries of Scotland has its eyes on a Doig painting, he warned against private collectors splashing out £5.7m on one painting.

"If I were advising someone on a collection you could get better value spending that money across a range of artists," he said.

"There's a risk the investment will be affected by fashion and economic cycles. Art can go down as well as up."