Venice has hoofed Folkestone out of the record books, now a Turner painting of the Grand Canal in Venice has become his most expensive work, at over twenty million quid. Previously it was a view of Folkestone, sold in 1984 for somewhere around nine million dollars.
Giudecca, La Donna della Salute and San Giorgio, a view of the Grand Canal in Venice from the island of Giudecca in the Venetian lagoon, had not been in seen in public for more than 30 years when it was put on display at Christie's in London last year.
Expected to fetch around 11 million, the painting easily surpassed the previous record sum paid for a British work: the $21,153,800 (12m) that purchased John Constables The Lock in 1990.
This is my site The Folkestone Gerald that I built in a fury of excitement when I first came here sometime in 2004. I'd been a frequent visitor for a while before that so I am technically one of those Down From Londons you get nowadays. The site was a lot more dynamic with a gig calendar and voting for favourite places and stuff, and I know it was a handy resource for those who were thinking of moving here. Now I've moved out of Folkestone again (though just to Hythe) it doesn't get as much love as it used to. Ironic really as Folkestone itself is now becoming the exciting place we always thought it was just about to. My name is not Gerald by the way, the name comes from a pretend paper in an episode of The Day Today or something, the Portsmouth Gerald, and how there is a local newspaper here called the Folkestone Herald. Puns like this are great aren't they? Do contact me if you have anything to offer, email anythign @ this domain, or try @folkestone or @pauly on the twitter.