Four little-known works by LS Lowry, which were stored in a cupboard after their owners died, have been sold at auction for 318,000. The works had hung in the Harrogate home of an unnamed couple, who have both died within the last few years. Their children stored them away before selling them through Harrogate auctioneers Morphets. The most valuable work to be sold was Man Posting a Letter, which was painted in 1965. It fetched 165,000. The couple bought the oil painting directly from the artist in 1967. The other paintings in the sale included 1965s Group of People, which went under the hammer for 64,000, and 1963s Man With a Cart, which sold for 55,000. Family Group At The Seaside, a pencil sketch of downbeat children surrounding a long-haired man smoking a cigarette, raised 34,000. All four went to anonymous private buyers, Morphets said. The gallery held the first major exhibition of Lowrys work in 1938, after its then-director, Alexander Reid spotted some of the Lancashire artists paintings waiting to be framed. That exhibition sold eight paintings - one of which went to the Tate Gallery for 15. The Lefevre Gallery went on to host many more shows for Lowry as his star rose. In May, Lowrys The Football Match, painted in 1949, fetched 5.6m at Christies in London - a record for the artist. Lowry, who died in 1976, was famed for his melancholy portrayal of industrial towns in the north-west of England. BBC