WIREDGOV

An original artwork by Peter Howson which graced the First Minister’s 2013 charity Christmas card depicting the legend of Artaban is to be sold at a special auction event at Glasgow’s Oran Mor on Thursday 30thOctober.

Since 2007 artwork from the First Minister’s official Christmas cards, has raised more than £148,000 for good causes through sales of the original paintings and limited edition prints. The proceeds raised at this auction will be shared between the Children’s Hospice Association Scotland; CLIC Sargent; Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund and Combat Stress. Each charity has also be given a series of limited edition prints to help their own fundraising efforts.

The event at Oran Mor will celebrate the First Minister’s Christmas card initiative and bring together beneficiaries, charity representatives and artists from previous Christmas cards, as well as potential buyers and art collectors who are keen to get their hands on a piece of Howson’s work.

Speaking ahead of the auction event the First Minister, said:

“Since we launched the charity Christmas card initiative in 2007, sales of artwork and prints have raised more than £148,000 for good causes across Scotland. I am confident that, with such an iconic and internationally renowned artist providing the artwork this year the amount of money raised for good causes will increase significantly.

“Artaban is a wonderful painting and hugely appropriate for the 2013 Christmas card that will benefit four very deserving organisations - Children’s Hospice Association Scotland; CLIC Sargent; Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund and Combat Stress.

“I am very grateful to Peter for donating this outstanding painting. As you might expect, it’s a typically powerful image - unmistakably Howson - and I am sure it will go on to make a significant figure for these four very good causes at auction.

“The Christmas card initiative has only been possible through the generosity and kindness of the artists who have donated their work and I want to thank all of them for creating such incredible pieces of work and raising cash for great causes in the process. It is a mark of their compassion and consideration and I am grateful to all of them for their efforts.”

Notes To Editors

The legend of Artaban, or the fourth wise man, is based on a novel by Henry Van Dyke. It tells the tale of a Persian scholar who, delayed by helping the vulnerable, follows the star to Bethlehem but arrives just too late to herald the birth of the Christ child. Thirty years on in Jerusalem, at Passover, Artaban is still searching.