Official artist of Bosnian war, who has Asperger's, selling 200 works

From The Telegraph in the UK:

Peter Howson (pictured), a former official war artist, is selling off more than 200 of his works because of financial difficulties.

Despite his commercial success, he said he had not managed to become rich due to "bad decision making and not being very good with money".

He once admitted spending £300,000 in one year on drugs and alcohol, as well as being addicted to shopping.

He said: "With the amount of money I should've made, I should be financially secure, but I'm not and am struggling to keep this operation going."

The 51-year-old, who has Asperger's Syndrome, said he thought his condition played a part in his financial situation.

"One of my biggest problems is an inability to read people's motivations, which I suppose makes me easy to be ripped off," he said.

He also believed he had been "over generous" and given away too much money in the past.

In June he said he would be handing power over his financial affairs to his lawyer, an art dealer and two other people.

In 1993 Howson, who quit art school to join the Royal Highland Fusiliers, was appointed the official war artist for Bosnia.

On his first trip to Bosnia he was so traumatised that he asked to go home without having done any artistic work. He found white feathers pushed through his door. When he returned to Bosnia he managed to work, although his materials were stolen and he had to work in "boot polish and candlewax".

The framed, signed works, most of which date from the last decade, will be sold by auctioneers McTears in Glasgow on Tuesday evening.

Brian Clements, director of McTears, said: "This is an incredible collection which, looked at in its entirety, paints a fascinating picture of Peter Howson’s life over the past few years.

"At the instruction of the artist, his private collection has been put up for sale without reserve, which essentially means art lovers could pick up an original Howson at a very reasonable price."

The most expensive is a triptych, estimated to sell for up to £80,000.

That is a long way short of his most expensive ever work, another triptych called Three Faces of Eve, which went under the hammer for £300,500 at Sotheby's last year.

In 2000 Howson undertook a drug and rehabilitation programme, after which he turned to Christianity.

The artist said he still owned hundreds of his own works and was not unduly worried about his financial future.