Earl Spencer’s £30m attic clearout

It is the poshest and potentially most lucrative art clear-out of the year, The London Evening Standard reports. Earl Spencer, the brother of Princess Diana who has just asked for the hand in marriage of his third wife, is set to make a small fortune after clearing out his attic cupboards for what is set to be a multi-million-pound series of sales at Christie's. A Rubens, hailed as one of the most important works by the artist left in private hands, is expected to make £8-£12 million and an Il Guercino, £8 million. Other works have also tumbled out of the storerooms at Althorp, the ancestral family home in Northamptonshire, which is undergoing a £10 million re-roofing and restoration project. Even more treasures are to be sold from Spencer House in St James's, their London home until 1924 and one of only a handful of the capital's great 18th-century private palaces to remain intact today. More than 500 lots are destined for the attic sale. The art Old Masters will be sold on 6 July, works of art from the Spencer collections on 8 July and other works of art, the Spencer carriages and the attic sale on other dates this summer. For full source and full article click the Headline). Irish Art