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.

  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. ^ a b c d e f g Reif, Rita (5 June 1984). "Peter C. Wilson, 71, is dead; headed Sotheby's in London". Retrieved 1 August 2014.
  3. ^ a b "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.