Peter Wilson (auctioneer)

Peter Cecil Wilson CBE (8 March 1913 – 3 June 1984) was an English auctioneer and chairman of Sotheby's.[1][2]

Wilson's father was Sir Mathew Wilson, 4th Baronet of Eshton Hall, Gargrave, Yorkshire.[2] He was educated at Eton College and at New College, Oxford.[2] He married Helen Ballard in 1935 who he had met in Hamburg. They had two sons and she became a noted horticulturist after he became attracted to men. The marriage was dissolved in 1951 and they remained on good terms.[3]

He worked for British Intelligence during World War II, in London and Washington DC.[2] He thought about taking this up as a career but decided to return to "Sotherbys" after the war.[3]

He appeared as a castaway on the BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs on 26 September 1966.[4]

He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1970, and was made honorary life president of Sotheby's in 1980, when he stood down as chairman.[2] Wilson owned Garden Lodge at Logan Place in London's Kensington district for several years.[5]

He died in Paris in 1984, after being in a coma for a week.[2] He was 71.[2]

Wilson is mentioned in the Ian Fleming story "The Property of a Lady", commissioned by Sotheby's for use in their annual journal, The Ivory Hammer,[6] and which was adapted as the auction sequence in the film Octopussy.

References
  • WILSON, Peter Cecil, Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2016 (online edition, Oxford University Press, 2014)
  1. Faith, Nicholas (20 June 1993). "Auctioneer who lifted art to new heights". The Independent. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 1 August 2014.
  2. Reif, Rita (5 June 1984). "Peter C. Wilson, 71, is dead; headed Sotheby's in London". Retrieved 1 August 2014.
  3. "Wilson, Peter Cecil (1913–1984), fine art auctioneer". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/31845. Retrieved 1 August 2020. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  4. "Desert Island Discs - Castaway : Peter Wilson". BBC Online. BBC. Retrieved 27 July 2014.
  5. "Survey of London: Volume 42, Kensington Square To Earl's Court: The Edwardes estate: Pembroke Square, Pembroke Gardens and Pembroke Road area". Victoria County History. 1986. Retrieved 26 October 2018.
  6. Benson, Raymond (1988). The James Bond Bedside Companion. London: Boxtree Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85283-233-9.


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