A PAINTING bought by an Oxford don for a couple of hundred pounds has sold for more than £9,000.

Worcester College professor of medieval history James Campbell bought the picture of rooftops in Lowestoft, Suffolk, on a whim more than 25 years ago, but on Friday it sparked international interest.

The rare work was in fact by Euan Uglow (1932-2000), a London-born artist of Welsh extraction.

It went under the hammer at Dee Atkinson & Harrison on Friday and sold for £9,500.

Saleroom manager Andrew Spicer said: "It was bought by a special modern art dealer."

The sale is a remarkable return. Prof Campbell, a collector of paintings and prints featuring Lowestoft who died earlier this year, bought the painting but never hung it on his wall.

Instead, he gave it to his cousin and its true value was discovered when it was valued.

It was estimated to sell for between £5,000 and £7,000.

The picture itself was thought to be one of a small series Uglow did around Lowestoft, where Prof Campbell grew up, in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

It is unusual because Uglow was thought of principally as a painter of nudes, although his relatively small body of work does include portraits, landscapes and still life paintings,