A PAINTING bought more than 60 years ago for just £170 is expected to fetch around £400,000 when it goes on sale in Dorchester.

The ‘lost’ oil painting by celebrated English artist Sir Stanley Spencer was bought by a couple soon after it was painted in the early 1950s.

Entitled ‘Potato Patch, Rostrevor’, the picture was painted by Spencer in Northern Ireland and depicts a colourful rural landscape.

The artist, who died in 1959, was regarded as an early modernist and it was only after his passing that his work started to become valuable.

Prices have escalated recently, thanks partly to a campaign backed by Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson to restore his paintings of Port Glasgow’s shipyards during the Second World War.

The unnamed owners of the landscape painting have hung it in their Dorset flat for many years but have decided to sell it after learning works by Spencer are currently selling for six or even seven figure sums.

Auctioneers at Duke’s in Dorchester have given the painting a pre-sale estimate of £400,000 and it will go under the hammer on Thursday, April 11.

Guy Schwinge, of Duke's, said: “The couple who are selling the painting bought it from a London dealer in 1952.

“Although they didn't fully appreciate it, it has turned out to be a very sound investment as works by Spencer have shot up in value.

“Twentieth century British artists are very collectable at the moment.

“The vendors have come to realise just how much his work is going for and got a bit nervous about having something so valuable hung up in their flat and that is why they are selling.”