The estimate for the 3ft 1in (94.5cm) high bronze at Woolley & Wallis in Salisbury on June 5 is a far more modest £800-1200.
The creator of the Tavistock Square statue in the 1980s was the Polish-born sculptor and actress Fredda Brilliant (1903-99). She had lived in India with her husband, the writer Herbert Marshall during the 1950s and early 1960s where she sculpted some of the most significant figures of the post-independence era including Jawaharlal Nehru, VK Krishna Menon and Indira Gandhi.
The full-size bronze and stone Mohandas K Ghandi sculpture is by far her most famous work.
The maquette offered in Salisbury had been brought to the Antiques Roadshow at the Cheltenham Town Hall in 2013 by Brilliant’s niece where it was discussed at length by expert Philip Mould and valued at £20,000.
The maquette being valued by Philip Mould at the Antiques Roadshow at Cheltenham Town Hall in 2013.
The vendor has since decided to sell the piece, together with other pieces she had inherited from the artist’s studio.
Estimating an auction price is a famously inexact science and Fredda Brilliant’s work has a very modest track record on the secondary market.
Only on June 5 will it be determined if Mould’s confidence in the commercial value of this piece was well-placed or if the Salisbury auctioneers’ more conservative appraisal was correct.
