LYON & Turnbull has underlined its continuing recovery from the pandemic as profits and turnover surged during a year the Edinburgh-based auction house helped sell a rare US Declaration of Independence for more than £3 million.
The auctioneer reported a profit of £2.43m for the year ended July 31, up from £1.73m, as turnover leapt by 22.8 per cent to more than £8m, accounts newly filed at Companies House show.
Writing in the accounts, managing director Gavin Strang states the increase in profit and turnover “can be attributed to a combination of company expansion in line with its strategic plan, notable high value sales and post-Covid recovery”.
Responding to questions from The Herald, Mr Strang said the “art market experienced a boom during the pandemic, which carried on into 2022”.
READ MORE: Bank shares tumble as confidence shaken in sector again
He noted that “as a company we placed ourselves at the forefront of digital developments which allowed us to harness the boom to best effect such as live online bidding for all auctions, the use of Matterport technology for remote 3D sale viewing, smart technology which matches our clients up with artworks they might like and so on. This allowed us to engage a much larger global online audience, which helped drive up prices and selling rates.”
Mr Strang added: “On the selling side, as one of the largest UK auction houses offering an excellent bespoke service, many people chose to come to us to sell their rare items and unique collections. Further, we continue to grow our business in the south, increasing the number of sales we hold in London. As a result of all this activity, we have doubled our turnover over the past five years.”
The auction house said the period had seen it sell a rare US Declaration of Independence in partnership with US firm Freeman’s for £3.2m in July 2021, a rare maiolica dish for a world record £1.26m in October 2021, and a still life painting by Samuel John Peploe, the Scottish Post-Impressionist painter, for £735,000 in December of that year.
READ MORE: Cumbernauld: Antonine Shopping Centre falls into administration
It also successfully auctioned The Intrepid, officially the world’s largest bottle of whisky, for £1.1m in May last year. Lyon & Turnbull notes on its website that the Guinness world record holding bottle is over 1.8m tall, contains 311 litres of single-malt Scotch whisky and was distilled at The Macallan Distillery in 1989.
The period covered by the accounts Lyon & Turnbull sell collections such as The Wilhemina Barns Graham Personal Collection of St Ives Artists, including a Barbara Hepworth which fetched £471,000. It sold the contents of Lowood House near Melrose, which included the record-breaking maiolica dish, and The Minoprio Collection of Arts & Crafts furniture.
Lyon & Turnbull, which has auction rooms in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and London, made a successful transition into online auctions after the pandemic struck in 2020, when lockdowns prevented events from being held in person. While the lifting of Covid restrictions ushered in the return of in-person events last year, Mr Strang said online auctions are here to stay at Lyon & Turnbull.
READ MORE: Lyon & Turnbull chief hails move into online auctions
Mr Strang, who noted sales are “ahead of budget” in the current financial year, said: “The return to in person auctions has made little difference – the vast majority of buyers are now online or on the phone. What has been important is the ability for buyers to come to pre-sale views to see the items first hand and we place a lot of emphasis on displaying artworks to their best effect. Very few come back to attend the sale though, as they trust the technology enough to be able to do it from wherever they happen to be.
“Most of our sales are now hybrid events, with in-person, telephone and online bidding. We also have some sales which take place online only, as our sale calendar has increased significantly in recent years.”
Lyon & Turnbull appointed Iain Mackinnon as chairman to succeed Sir Angus Grossart, the veteran Scottish financier and patron of the arts, who died in May of last year.
The company has around 60 employees.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel