A COLLECTION of paintings by John Bellany have sold for more than three times the estimated price at auction.

The seven paintings were owned by singer David Bowie, who died in January, and were part of a massive auction of his personal art held at Sotheby’s in London.

Originally expected to raise up to £100,000 between them, the seven works eventually went under the hammer and raised more then £307,000.

One painting in the collection, Fishermen in the Snow, which was included by Port Seton artist Bellany in his own favourite pieces, was valued at between £12,000 and £18,000 – it was sold for £106,250.

All of Bellany’s paintings raised at least twice the lower end of their pre-auction valuation during the sale on Friday.

Another work, entitled Two Figures Self Portrait, which was valued at just £4,000 to £6000, sold for £45,000 on the day.

Mr Bellany struck up a friendship with Bowie that saw the musical legend visit his home on a number of occasions.

Mr Bellany once said: “He comes to Port Seton a lot. One time he was staying at the Caley [Caledonian] Hotel in Edinburgh and he came to our flat for dinner.

“I asked him, ‘Well, David, what have you been up to today?’ He said: ‘I’ve been down to Port Seton again and talk about co-incidence! Right next door to your old house is one called Dar es Salaam. The funny thing is I’ve just fallen in love with a girl from Dar es Salaam and you’ll meet her next time I’m here.’ This, of course, was Iman [Bowie’s supermodel wife].”

Mr Bellany, who died in 2013, even painted a portrait of the singer that was simply called David Bowie.

The Bowie Collection included more than 400 items from the singer’s personal art haul over the years. It raised an estimated £33million during the two-day auction.