Works by the likes of Lucian Freud and Gary Hume and even the sign that hung outside Lehman’s  Canary Wharf office will be among the pieces according to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which is dealing with the collapsed bank’s main European operations.

Despite the quality items on sale, the auction is only expected to raise a piffling £2m or thereabouts for creditors.

When the bank filed for bankruptcy in September 2008 it had debts of $613bn (£384bn), making it the largest bankruptcy filing in US history. That’s a whole world of paintings.