Painting fails to sell at auction

Even a bid of $50,000 (about £25,000) was not enough to clinch a deal for an oil painting by a 1920s Rodmell artist when it came up for sale at Christie's at the Rockefeller Plaza in New York last week.

Before the auction,experts predicted that the picture, called Golden Days, could fetch up to $100,000.

But at the sale, the highest bid failed to meet the reserve price, which was not disclosed by auctioneer Christie's, so the picture by Nathaniel Hughes Baird,of Rectory Cottage,Rodmell,remained unsold.

The picture fetched 33,350 when it was last sold at Sotheby's in London nine years ago and that remains the world record for a Baird painting.