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Iconic Cure frontman Robert Smith, International Musicians and Artists Raise £70,000 with Anonymous Art Auction for Heart Research UK

Posted on November 9th 2021 by Whats on Northeast

A host of musical talent helped national heart charity Heart Research UK raise over £70,000 with the fourth instalment of their celebrated ‘anonymous heART project’, auctioning mystery pieces of A5 art produced by internationally acclaimed artists, musicians and celebrities.

Heart Research UK Patron Robert Smith (The Cure) was joined by Liam Howlett (The Prodigy), Chvrches, Kevin Shields (My Bloody Valentine), Andy Bell, Mark Gardener, Laurence Colbert (Ride), James Alexander Graham, Andy MacFarlane (The Twilight Sad) and Jamie Hewlett (Gorillaz) in addition to a long list of renowned artists including Ralph Steadman, Annina Roescheisen, Anna Tsvell and Paul Insect to produce over 450 pieces of unique artwork, that were auctioned on eBay between the 22nd – 31st October 2021.

The online auction, sponsored by international law firm Walker Morris included 471 pieces which were all sold anonymously. Prior to the auction, a full list of contributors was made available, however the artist of each individual piece has been kept a secret, only being revealed to winning bidders now that the auction is over.

When the virtual hammer came down on Sunday evening at 8:00pm, the auction had proved to be an enormous success, raising a record amount and bringing the total amount raised for the ‘anonymous heART project’ across the 4 years to over £200,000, which will be helping to fund Heart Research UK’s life-saving work.

Following on from previous auctions, iconic rockstar and frontman of The Cure; Robert Smith contributed four beautiful pieces with the best-selling artwork fetching a stunning £5,900 in the online auction.

The piece, entitled “IT’S JUST THE WAY I SMILE…YOU SAID…” was highly sought after and was accompanied by 3 other pieces titled PLAINSONG #1, PLAINSONG #2 and PLAINSONG #3 drawing inspiration from The Cure’s 1989 hit.

 

Heart Research UK Patron Robert Smith commented: “The anonymous heART auction is a great idea and a great event, a wonderful opportunity to own a unique piece of art whilst supporting one of the UK’s best charities. The generosity of the bidding this year was overwhelming and I am very proud of everyone who got involved. I can’t wait for next year’s auction!”

 

Other contributions comprising the top-selling pieces were kindly offered by Liam Howlett, The Twilight Sad and Jamie Hewlett.

 

Ahead of its fifth anniversary in 2022, the ‘anonymous heART project’ has seen over 1,800 artworks sold, raising over £200,000 for Heart Research UK’s pioneering research into the prevention, treatment and cure of heart disease.

Kate Bratt-Farrar, Chief Executive of Heart Research UK, said: “Everyone at Heart Research UK has been truly overwhelmed with the generosity of both the artists and people bidding on this year’s ‘anonymous heART project’. 

 

We knew that it would be tough to beat the previous year’s total but we managed to exceed all our expectations and could not be more grateful to everyone involved. We are indebted to all the contributors and would particularly like to thank our Patrons, Robert Smith, Paul Insect and Christopher Kane, who all picked up their paintbrushes and donated their time, effort and support to the campaign.

 

At Heart Research UK we like to use fun and innovative ways to raise funds and the beauty of the ‘anonymous heART project’ is that it allows people to support ground-breaking medical research, while at the same time obtaining a beautiful piece of art in return. It really is making high-class art available to all and we’re thrilled with the success of this years’ campaign.

 

Each and every year, we try and make the ‘anonymous heART project’ even more special and we are already working on some exciting plans for the big five-year anniversary in 2022”

To find out more and to register your interest for the fifth-year anniversary of the anonymous heART project, please visit heartresearch.org.uk/anonymous-heart/

Or follow the @he.art_project on Instagram for more updates.

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