Heart Research UK smashes fundraising record with over £70,000 raised with art-inspired fundraiser

Heart Research UK has raised over £70,000 with the fourth instalment of their ‘anonymous heART project’, auctioning mystery pieces of A5 art produced by a host of internationally acclaimed artists, musicians and celebrities.

Heart Research UK Patrons Robert Smith (The Cure), Paul Insect and Christopher Kane have joined the likes of Chvrches, Jamie Hewlett, Annina Roescheisen, Anna Tsvell, Ralph Steadman and hundreds of international artists to create over 450 pieces of unique artwork, that were auctioned on eBay between the 22nd – 31st October 2021.

The online auction, sponsored by international law firm Walker Morris included 471 pieces which were all sold anonymously. Prior to the auction, a full list of contributors was available, however the artist of each piece has been kept a secret, only being revealed to winning bidders now that the auction is over.

When the virtual hammer came down on Sunday evening at 8:00pm, the auction had proved to be an enormous success, raising a record amount and bringing the total amount raised for the ‘anonymous heART project’ across the 4 years to over £200,000, which will be helping to fund Heart Research UK’s life-saving work.

Following on from previous auctions, iconic rockstar and frontman of The Cure; Robert Smith contributed four beautiful pieces with the best-selling artwork fetching a stunning £5,900 in the online auction.

The piece, entitled “IT’S JUST THE WAY I SMILE…YOU SAID…” was highly sought after and all four pieces were included in the top 10 best-selling artworks.

Heart Research UK Patron Robert Smith commented: “The anonymous heART auction is a great idea and a great event, a wonderful opportunity to own a unique piece of art whilst supporting one of the UK’s best charities. The generosity of the bidding this year was overwhelming and I am very proud of everyone who got involved. I can’t wait for next year’s auction!”

Ahead of its fifth anniversary in 2022, the ‘anonymous heART project’ has seen over 1,800 artworks sold, raising over £200,000 for Heart Research UK’s pioneering research into the prevention, treatment and cure of heart disease.

Kate Bratt-Farrar, Chief Executive of Heart Research UK, said: “Everyone at Heart Research UK has been truly overwhelmed with the generosity of both the artists and people bidding on this year’s ‘anonymous heART project’.

We knew that it would be tough to beat the previous year’s total but we managed to exceed all our expectations and could not be more grateful to everyone involved. We are indebted to all the contributors and would particularly like to thank our Patrons Robert Smith, Paul Insect and Christopher Kane, who all picked up their paintbrushes and donated their time, effort and support to the campaign.

At Heart Research UK we like to use fun and innovative ways to raise funds and the beauty of the ‘anonymous heART project’ is that it allows people to support ground-breaking medical research, while at the same time obtaining a beautiful piece of art in return. It really is making high-class art available to all and we’re thrilled with the success of this years’ campaign.

Each and every year, we try and make the ‘anonymous heART project’ even more special and we are already working on some exciting plans for the big five-year anniversary in 2022.”

To find out more and to register your interest for the fifth-year anniversary of the anonymous heART project, please visit heartresearch.org.uk/anonymous-heart/
Or follow the @he.art_project on Instagram for more updates.