Lyon & Turnbull Edinburgh

When COVID-19 restrictions kicked in at the end of March, Lyon & Turnbull adapted swiftly to a virtual model. While other major auction houses were cancelling and postponing sales, Lyon & Turnbull quickly moved everything online to its own free bidding platform, L&T Live.

Using in-house video technology and multiple live bidding consoles across four international platforms, the auction house saw record-breaking results for both prices and numbers of people participating. Pre-lockdown, 33% of sales were online; now that figure has almost doubled to around 60%.

The online activity is also attracting younger buyers, with 40% of sales now coming mainly from 25-44 year olds. Lyon & Turnbull also noted that the number of registrations per auction were up 39% from the beginning of the year compared with 2019.

In June 2020, its rare books auction saw a house record for an online bid when a first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone sold for £125K to an international buyer using L&T Live.

Its specialist sale of Scottish Painting and Sculptures in July attracted nearly 500 international bidders competing remotely. The selling rate was 97% with a remarkable 100 out of 103 lots sold. Sales included a seascape by the celebrated Victorian painter, William McTaggart, which went under the hammer for £45,000.

In August, at its Scottish Works of Art & Whisky auction, Bonnie Prince Charlie’s steel and gold walking stick sold for £16,250, while a rare 17th century spoon made by Edinburgh craftsman Gilbert Kirkwood sold for £26,250.

Gavin Strang, Lyon & Turnbull’s managing director, said: “We are all very proud of being able to adapt so quickly and stay active throughout the lockdown and for getting the results we did for our clients, especially when so many other auctions across the UK were cancelled or postponed.

“The UK art market tends to be dominated by London and in recent years, we have witnessed competitors pull out of Scotland. Even more so since the start of the Covid pandemic. So this is a real success story for Scotland. We know that our achievements have inspired other salerooms across the UK to look at changing established ways of selling.”