'I kept a £1.25m Lowry under my bed'

Bill looks back on life at the heart of the art world as he closes door on his gallery for the final time

- NEAL KEELING

BILL Clark has sold 9,500 paintings in 25 years. But his legacy is not merely that of a charming, knowledgeable, passionate dealer with a flair for marketing. He has championed Northern artists and made demand for their work international.

And it all came from creating a device to attach to buildings to deter birds from damaging them. His invention, thought up at a table in his then little flat in Lymm, was the catalyst for a very successful business.

When he sold the company he gained the financial freedom to acquire something he had always wanted a LS Lowry painting. He bought The Cricket Match - featuring a game on a green next to a mill. He touted it to professional cricketers who he thought might be interested but had no takers.

Then he remembered John Paul Getty Junior loved the game. He bought the painting from Bill for £400,000.

"I realised at that point this could be quite a good path towards my retirement," Bill said. "Even though I knew nothing about art at the time I built up an international business. It learned using the internet and marketing." As he closes the door on his gallery in Hale he looks back on the fact that he has put a string of artists into the spotlight and changed their lives forever.

Along the way he survived a raid on his gallery in Ashley Road by professional art thieves in 2006. The £1m haul, which included a £400,000 Lowry work, was taken in a burglary.

Thirteen paintings were stolen.

Bill astutely turned a negative into a positive. The raid made national and regional headlines and raised his profile.

He also ended up doing interviews for newspapers in Chile after a more upbeat episode. He organised a exhibition of northern art in the chairman's room at Manchester City's Etihad Stadium. The club's manager at the time, Manuel Pellegrini inquired as to what the display was.