Bowie's sculptures by Shropshire artist set to make £43,000 at Sotheby's auction
Seven works of art by a Shropshire-born sculptor, which were owned and treasured until his death by pop superstar David Bowie, are set to fetch between £29,000 and £43,000 at the auction of Bowie's £10 million art collection next week.
The five bronze and two stone sculptures which David Bowie liked so much are by Professor Glynn Williams, aged 77, who was educated at Wolverhampton Grammar School before moving on to Wolverhampton College of Art.
Some of the Shrewsbury artist's work is owned by Wolverhampton Education Committee and, in 1989, he was appointed an Honorary Fellow at Wolverhampton Polytechnic.
After leaving Wolverhampton College of Art, Professor Williams worked at the British School in Rome until 1963 after winning the British Prix de Rome scholarship.
In 1976, he became head of the Wimbledon School of Art's sculpture department before moving on to the Royal College of Art in London,where he became head of sculpture in 1990 and head of the School of Fine Art from 1995 until 2010.
He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Art, the Royal Society of British Sculptors and the Royal Society of Arts.
His sculpture of former Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, is in Parliament Square, London, while his bronze statue of composer Henry Purcell at Westminster was unveiled by the late Princess Margaret on November 22, 1995.
In his entry, Professor Williams proudly mentions his Wolverhampton education and training. In Who's Who he lists his recreations as cooking, crosswords and music. Also in his entry, he does not mention his ex-wife's name. His 38-year marriage ended in divorce back in 2001.
The most valuable Glynn Williams sculpture in the David Bowie auction at Sotheby's in London on November 10 and 11 is entitled Two Girls From 1907 (After Picasso) and is expected to fetch between £8,000 and £12,000. This could set a new world auction record for a work by Professor Williams.
The current world auction record for a Williams sculpture is £8,280, the sum paid at Christie's in London on October 22, 1997, for his 1991 bronze, Portrait With Flowers.
