The Lad’s List

An auctioneer has auctioned off a life-size portrait of British prime minister Margaret Thatcher for a whopping $1.2 million.

The portrait, by famed art dealer Richard A. Staunton, is among several items auctioned at the Vistas Auction House in the city of Birmingham, England, in a sale which began on Tuesday.

The painting was originally exhibited in the 1960s in the Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, and was purchased by the Vista Auction House on July 30.

The auction house, which specializes in rare and contemporary art, said the work, which was first exhibited in 2007, was sold on Thursday for $1,500,000.

The work is one of a series of rare paintings by British art dealer Staunson, whose clients include American painter Thomas Hardy, Japanese painter Yasunori Mitsuda, German artist Erich Koch and Spanish artist Carlos Ponce de Leon.

The other paintings included by Staunston include a 17th-century portrait of the late English painter Lord Byron and a 16th- and 17th–century portrait by Dutch artist Johannes van der Waals.

The auction house said the buyer is a friend of the artist, and said it plans to auction the work as part of a larger sale.

It said the painting will be displayed at the museum for the next five years.