Piccadilly Circus, London, 1960 by LS Lowry (1887-1976) is the headline lot of Sotheby's sale of the AJ Thompson collection in London on March 25, with an estimate of £4m-6m ($6.6m-9.9m).

The piece is one of only two paintings Lowry ever produced of the capital, with the other holding his auction record at £5.6m ($9.2m).

Piccadilly Circus, London, 1960 is one of only two paintings of London ever produced by Lowry

The auction comprises a set of 15 Lowry paintings, which are expected to make a combined total of over £15m ($24.7m).

Thompson, a self made millionaire, only ever collected paintings by Lowry, and over time accumulated one of the finest private collections of his work.

He kept them at his home in Suffolk, occasionally lending them out to the Lowry in Manchester.

Frances Christie, Sotheby's head of modern & post-war British art, commented: "Thompson was a collector who truly understood Lowry's vision and he had a real instinct to hone in on the very best examples of the artist's work.

"As such there is a remarkable consistency of quality throughout the collection, which encompasses the very broad range of themes and subjects that Lowry explored so deftly."

Christie went on to describe Lowry as "a fantastically accomplished artist who turned his remarkable skills of observation and representation to creating some of the most complex and visually compelling images of modern life painted in the 20th Century.

"His work captured a fast-disappearing way of life in Britain, one that is more familiar in some of the world's emerging economies today."

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