ELEVEN Lowry paintings are going on sale at a Huddersfield gallery - priced at up to £67,000 each!

Pictures by the late LS Lowry are usually only seen in museums and private collections.

But now a rare chance has come up for wealthy fans to buy one.

The amazing show - featuring £417,400 of artwork all together - is on at the AC Gallery in Byram Street from this Saturday.

Salford-based Lowry, who liked to visit Huddersfield and regularly lunched at the George Hotel in the 1960s, is best-known for his matchstick men and industrial scenes.

But paintings and drawings, including the £67,000 small oil painting Family Group With White Dog, show a different side to his work.

It is signed and dated 1961 and measures just over 11in by 6in.

The picture has already been on show in Newcastle, Sheffield, London and Salford.

The cheapest of the Lowrys is a pencil sketch at £9,500.

A total of 11 will hang at AC Gallery until May 20 in the show of 50 works, called Art From Up North.

Mike Baggs, of the AC Gallery, said: "Lowry is the most famous northern artist and his popularity never seems to wane.

"His pictures evoke so many nostalgic memories and appeal to all generations.

"We're always being asked for Lowry's work. Usually we can only offer prints, so this is very exciting for us."

The exhibition is being run with art dealer Bill Clark, who is also lending other top works.

Four pieces by Wigan artist Theodore Major are priced at £19,000 to £28,000.

There are three pictures by Roger Hampson, who taught Lowry at Manchester School of Art.

They are priced at about £1,300 each.

Other collectable names in the show include Helen Bradley, Alan Lowndes, Arthur Delaney and Harold Riley.

There is also work by John Thompson, an artist of the moment featured in The Guardian and The Independent newspapers.

The gallery is open on Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday, then every day except Wednesdays and Sundays.

* Laurence Stephen Lowry was born in Rusholme, Manchester, in November 1887.

* He started work as a clerk for a firm of chartered accountants in 1904.

* From 1905 to 1915 he went to drawing and painting classes at the Municipal College of Art (now part of Manchester Metropolitan University).

* At Salford School of Art he developed an interest in the urban and industrial landscape. He exhibited with the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts from 1919.

* He was awarded an honorary MA degree at Manchester University in 1945 and a doctorate of letters in 1961. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1962 and given the freedom of the City of Salford in 1965. He died in 1976.

* He is known to have produced over 10,000 works.

* Manchester's premier gallery, The Lowry Centre in Salford Quays, has a major collection of his work.