Schranz Grand Harbour paintings sold for £98,000 at auction

Two paintings of Grand Harbour by Giovanni Schranz (1794-1882), were yesterday sold for £98,000 at the Edinburgh fine art auctioneers Lyon and Turnbull.

'View of Grand Harbour during a storm', and 'View of Grand Harbour from Corradino' were valued at between £40,000 and £60,000.

Lyon and Turnbull spokesman Philip Gregory said the paintings had been sold to an anonymous Briton.

"Sadly, there were four Maltese bidders who did not succeed in getting their hands on these works of art," he said.

Mr Gregory said the auction started at noon and the paintings were sold within 90 minutes.

The paintings have been housed at the ancestral home of Clan Blair, Blair House in Ayrshire, for the last 150 years. The owners had bought the paintings while an ancestor was working on the Royal Yacht Britannia during his time in the Royal Navy in the 1840s.

Painting specialist Nick Curnow, managing director of Lyon and Turnbull, said research had revealed much of the huge contribution the Schranz family had made to Maltese painting since the date of Anton Schranz's arrival on the island in 1817.