An L. S. Lowry painting depicting people attending a football match has sold at auction for £7.8m.
The beloved 1953 artwork has been saved by the Salford theatre and gallery that shares the artist’s name.
The Lowry successfully bid to buy and keep Going to the Match, where it will remain on public display with The Lowry Collection.
It’s been part of The Lowry’s display since 2000, when it arrived as a loan by owners the Professional Footballers Association.
Once the PFA decided to sell the painting, there was no guarantee that the new owners would ensure it would be free to access for the public.
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Salford Quays and The Lowry. Credit: Unsplash
The painting shows crowds of people milling towards a football ground and has been praised for capturing a ‘quintessentially Northern experience’.
The purchase was made possible by the support of The Law Family Charitable Foundation.
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Julia Fawcett OBE, CEO of The Lowry, said: “We firmly believe that this iconic artwork must remain on public view, so it can continue to be seen by the broadest possible audiences, for free.
“This evening, thanks to an incredibly generous gift from The Law Family Charitable Foundation, we are delighted to have purchased the painting for the city’s collection of LS Lowry works.
Wonderful that Lowry’s football masterpiece has been saved for Salford’s Lowry Centre by Andrew and Zoe Law. It sold ten mins ago for close to £7 million. It’s coming home…. pic.twitter.com/EeQrmmNs9v
“We look forward to bringing it home to Salford, where it can continue to delight and attract visitors to the Andrew and Zoë Law galleries at The Lowry.
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“A great deal of work has been needed to make this intervention possible – I’d like to thank Andrew and Zoë Law, our Chair Sir Rod Aldridge, Salford’s City Mayor Paul Dennett and our Trustees for all of their support.”
Andrew Law said: “Zoë and I are delighted to have facilitated The Lowry’s purchase of Going to the Match. This LS Lowry painting belongs in Salford on public view, close to his birthplace, where he was educated and where he lived.
“Place matters. L. S. Lowry’s depiction of people attending a football match is just one of his many incredible genres of work, but it is undoubtedly his most iconic.”
Paul Dennett, Salford’s City Mayor, said: “L. S. Lowry, Salford’s greatest and most iconic artist, made his name depicting working-class life – as such we emphatically believed Going to the Match should remain on public view free to access where everyone can see it.
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“I am delighted our campaign to save this critical and important painting has successfully resulted in The Lowry securing it tonight, for the city of Salford in perpetuity for generations to come, for residents and visitors to our great City.”
Featured image: Supplied
Art & Culture
Beloved Greater Manchester tourist attraction left devastated after deliberate act of ‘mindless’ vandalism
Emily Sergeant
A beloved heritage tourist attraction in Greater Manchester has been left devastated after being attacked in a deliberate act of ‘mindless’ vandalism.
East Lancashire Railway (ELR) has revealed that it has, once again, been the victim of what it is referring to as a ‘deliberate and disgraceful’ act of vandalism overnight over May bank holiday weekend, where a locomotive and several coaches from the InterCity 125 heritage set were ‘targeted’.
In what can only be described as a ‘mindless attack’, extensive graffiti was plastered across rolling stock.
“One coach had only just been repainted in February, making this damage particularly galling,” ELR said in a gutting statement.
East Lancashire Railway has been left devastated after deliberate act of ‘mindless’ vandalism / Credit: ELR (Supplied)
Staff and volunteers working on the heritage railway claim this incident was ‘not opportunistic behaviour’ and was, in fact, a ‘calculated act of destruction’ against irreplaceable heritage assets cared for by volunteers.
Once the vandalism was discovered, volunteers immediately stepped in and worked tirelessly for several hours using specialist cleaning materials to remove the graffiti before it could permanently set.
Although further polishing and restoration work is still required, ELR says the volunteers’ swift action prevented what could have been ‘significant and lasting’ damage.
The beloved heritage tourist attraction called it ‘a calculated act of destruction’ / Credit: ELR (Supplied)
“This is a disgraceful and deeply frustrating attack on a railway run largely by volunteers, with many steam and diesel traction owned either by the ELR or groups and in some cases, private individuals who give their time freely to preserve our railway,” commented Mike Kelly, who is the Chairman of the East Lancashire Railway.
“It is nothing short of a kick in the teeth for those who work so hard to maintain and preserve historic traction and rolling stock.
“We are working closely with the police and are determined to see those responsible identified and held accountable.”
Greater Manchester Police attended the scene, gathered evidence, but anyone with any information about those responsible is urged to contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or via crimestoppers-uk.org.
Featured Image – ELR (Supplied)
Art & Culture
Antony Szmeirek announces second album along with biggest UK tour dates yet
Danny Jones
Greater Manchester spoken word artist Antony Szmeirek has finally revealed the name, cover art and release date for his second album, along with his biggest run of UK tour dates yet.
The Tameside teacher turned full-time artist dropped his maiden record, Service Station at the End of the Universe, back in February 2025, and now, just over a year on from its launch, he’s getting ready to deliver his highly anticipated follow-up.
Entitled Decoding Birdsong, the sophomore studio project is scheduled for this summer, with a series of live shows booked for the following autumn.
Having already dropped lead single ‘The Heron’ earlier this year, Szmeirek has just released the opener from his upcoming LP, which is simply called ‘Chalk’; he’s also unveiled the rest of the tracklist and a rather striking bit of album artwork.
The Hyde-born artist is making big moves not only within the spoken word space but across multiple genres, with his music blending everything from indie, hip-hop, electronica and more.
His latest song, for instance, is more of an acid-house-esque meets contemporary EDM outing, and has quickly gone down as a popular addition among fans.
On the album name itself, he’s never one to shy away from a weird title or two – case in point, ‘The Great Pyramid of Stockport’ from his debut and ‘Dave’s Angling Superstore’ on this new record.
The 34-year-old carries that same idiosyncrasy throughout his lyricism and creative concepts, as well.
‘Chalk’ is a perfect example of this, as the song is inspired by The Edge of Everything documentary: a film about the career of legendary British snooker player, Ronnie O’Sullivan.
Here’s the music video…
As for his latest raft of live shows, these will be some of the biggest domestic gigs that the local lad has played in his career so far.
In addition to a pair of hometown shows here in Manchester, he is set to play a dozen different cities across Great Britain and Ireland.
Antony Szmierek UK/IE tour dates – October 2026
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20th October 2022 
