Mending Nets, Aran by Gerard Dillon
The top lot at Sotheby’s Irish sale in London was Mending Nets, Aran by Gerard Dillon. It sold to an American buyer for £191,000 over a top estimate of £150 ,000. The work sold at James Adam in Dublin for 80,000 euro six years ago. A total of 65% of lots on offer found buyers. The Cello Player by Sir John Lavery made £112,500 but Mary Borden and her family by the same artist, estimated at £150,000-250,000 failed to find a buyer.
Charlie Minter of Sotheby’s said this years sale made £1.8 million. This was ahead of the low estimate and built on the success of Sotheby’s Irish sale last year. Auction records were set for Patrick Scott, Gottfried Helnwein, Rita Duffy and for a work on paper by Sean Keating. Water Lillies by Yeats was unsold at auction, but changed hands privately immediately after the sale.
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for September 11 and August 27, 2016)