David Beckham’s first painting is to be sold at auction at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong on Sunday, 16th November. Capitalising on Olympic Games fever, about 70 works on sporting themes by mainly Chinese artists from the collection of sportswear company Adidas will be sold to raise money to support continued relief efforts for the victims of the Sichuan earthquake.
Beckham’s painting, which is shaped like a goal, tells of his struggle to come back after he received the infamous red card during the 1998 World Cup, and his success in scoring the qualifying goal against Greece in 2001.
“The whole canvas is the idea of the goal,” he says. “There’s the ball in the corner, my celebration, and the words ‘Belief’, ‘Strength’, and ‘Family’, which is what I needed to get through after ‘98.” The painting is estimated to fetch between £5,700 and £7,000.