A MUCH sought-after painting by popular Scots artist Jack Vettriano has sold for more than double its highest estimate during a seven-hour auction in Edinburgh.

Fish Teas was snapped up for £100,000 at Lyon & Turnbull’s auction of contemporary and post-war art and prints.

It had been estimated the work would fetch between £30,000-£50,000, but insiders said “spirited bidding” saw the price rocket.

Prints of the self-taught artist’s work are exceptionally popular, including those of his best-known painting The Singing Butler, which sold for £744,800 in 2004.

Fish Teas was reportedly part of a £20 million collection amassed by RBS back in 2009, when it swallowed up its banking rivals before it collapsed.

However, Charlotte Riordan, from the Antiques Roadshow and an associate director with Lyon & Turnbull, said client confidentiality prevented them saying who owned the painting.

She said Vettriano’s paintings did not often come to market and added: “It’s one of the nicest examples we’ve seen of Vettriano’s work … a good example from a good stage in his career.”

One insider at the auction said there were some incredible prices, and added: “People are definitely buying art as an investment or lockdown diversion.

“There was a fabulous portrait of Liz Lochhead by Alasdair Gray which was in a big Kelvingrove retrospective – that went for £16,250.”

John Byrne’s Ceci n’est pas un Auto-Portrait (This is not a Self-Portrait) sold for £20,000.