THEIR artwork was owned by music legend David Bowie - now it has sold for thousands at auction.

Paintings by Hampshire artists Richard Eurich and Sven Berlin, which were owned and treasured by music icon and avid art collector David Bowie until his death earlier this year, have been sold at Sotheby’s in London.

Two oil paintings by Eurich sold for £42,500, more than five times the sum they had been expected to fetch.

The Eurich oil paintings - Schooner At Anchor and Northern Town – had been expected to sell for between £3,000 and £5,000 and for between £2,000 and £3,000.

In the end, the oil paintings sold for £22,500 and £20,000.

Berlin’s watercolour Teenagers was also sold for £20,000, despite being estimated to sell at between £600 and £800.

They were among 500 works of art which were owned until his death by singer David Bowie and which sold for a total of nearly £33 million at the auction.

Bowie, whose hits include Let’s Dance, Space Oddity, Starman and Life on Mars, died of cancer on January 10 this year at the age of 69.

He died just days after releasing his last studio album, Blackstar, on his 69th birthday.

Senior specialist in Modern and Post-War British Art at Sotheby’s Simon Hucker said: “Bowie was drawn to the art for which he felt a profound personal connection, collecting with great intellect and passion.

“Alongside the sensational results for the better-known artists, there was equal enthusiasm from collectors for the quieter, hidden-gems of Modern British art which he so loved and championed.”

The current world auction record for a work by Richard Eurich is £104,500.

That was paid at Christie’s in London on June 26, 2014, for Eurich’s 1956 oil painting,York Festival Triptych.

Although Richard Eurich was born, raised and educated in Bradford, Yorkshire, he spent nearly 70 years living and working at his home, Appletreewick, at Dibden Purlieu, on the edge of the New Forest.

Hythe, and the nearby Southampton Water, became regular subjects of his paintings.

In 2003, a major exhibition of Mr Eurich’s work was staged at Southampton’s Millais Gallery.

Among the paintings on display at that exhibition were a major Eurich work, The Club Room, which was loaned to the exhibition by former prime minister, Tony Blair.

It also included Eurich’s 1980 oil painting The Maze, which is owned by Southampton City Art Gallery, and a 1960 oil painting, A Refinery Scene (The Seven Sisters), which is owned by Esso and which features the Esso oil refinery on the shore of Southampton Water.

Some of Richard Eurich’s work is also owned by Tate Britain (formerly the Tate Gallery), the National Maritime Museum, and the Imperial War Museum.

Richard Eurich wed art lecturer and Methodist minister’s daughter, Mavis Pope, on September 15 1934.

After their marriage they moved to Dibden Purlieu, where they built their house Appletreewick.

It was their home until Mr Eurich’s death from colon cancer at the age of 89 at the Royal South Hampshire Hospital, Southampton, on June 6 1992.

Richard Eurich’s importance as an artist was officially confirmed on April 15 1953, when he was elected to the Royal Academy, which entitled him to place the letters ‘RA’ after his name.

Since the Royal Academy was founded in 1768, there have been only 603 Royal Academicians.

These include world-famous artists Turner and Constable, as well as the Southampton-born artists Sir John Everett Millais and Edward Gregory.

Sven Berlin, who died in 1999, was one of the most celebrated artists in St. Ives in the 1940s.

He left Cornwall for Emery Down in the New Forest in 1953, where he created many of his colourful works.

He is especially remembered for his record of the last community of the New Forest gypsies at Shave Green.

His inspiration for his painting, drawing, sculpture, casting bronze and writing came from the natural world and the people he met, the New Forest Gypsy community, the painter Augustus John, the writer Robert Graves, and many St. Ives artists and writers.