Westbury-based auction house raises £47,000 for women’s aid

AN online auction hosted by Westbury-based The Auction Hub in association with Auctionet.com and working with the Berntson Bhattacharjee gallery, to raise awareness of International Women’s Day, collected £47,000 for a domestic abuse charity.

The event featured the works of 30 emerging contemporary artists and achieved a 100% selling rate, with a highlight being Michaela Yearwood-Dan ‘Sentiments for D’, an oil painting on canvas that almost doubled its estimate, making £15,000.

Tom Osterman and James Harvey, founders of auctionet.com and The Auction Hub respectively, expressed their delight, saying, “This event has been a total success, raising awareness for International Women’s Day and providing much needed income for Women’s Aid.”

The Auction Hub, based in bespoke premises at Woodlands Industrial Estate in Westbury, was created to provide an online auction service with traditional values and expertise. It caters for sales of whole estates to individual items.

The auction was arranged by Berntson Bhattacharjee, a nomadic gallery working with emerging contemporary artists, and Wells Fray-Smith, assistant curator at Whitechapel Gallery. Through curated pop up exhibitions Berntson Bhattacharjee showcases the leading contemporary talent of young artists today.

Women’s Aid is a national charity working to end domestic abuse against women and children. Over the past 47 years, Women’s Aid has been at the forefront of shaping and coordinating responses to domestic abuse through practice, research and policy. Domestic abuse has worsened due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with 61% of women living with their abusers reporting an increase in incidents. The charity is in desperate need of funding to continue their important work. To find out more visit: www.womensaid.org.uk/