Cecil Maguire – Easter Light on Inishmaan. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Irish Paintings by artists including Cecil Maguire, Arthur Maderson, Charles Harper, Markey Robinson, Arthur Armstrong, Mat Grogan, Frank Egginton, George Campbell, Manus Walsh, George Gillespie and others feature at Dolan’s online auction which runs until November 24. The auction offers a collection of more than 70 Irish whiskeys, mostly Very Rare Midleton, along with collectibles, stamps and books.
Gustav Klimt – Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer – sold for $236.4 million.
Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer by Klimt made $236.4 million at Sotheby’s in New York last night to become the most expensive auction sale of a modern work of art. This was the second highest price ever paid for a work of art at auction. The most expensive artwork sold at auction this year was from the collection of Leonard Lauder, philanthropist, cosmetics magnate and legendary collector who died aged 92 last June. He donated his $1 billion Cubist art collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
The $706 million total for the night included the white glove sale of 24 lots from the Lauder collection which brought in $456.2 million. The first Sotheby’s auction at the Breuer Building made the highest total ever achieved by Sotheby’s for a one night auction. The Now and Contemporary sale brought in $178.5 million.
The record for a work of art sold at auction is Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, sold by Christie’s for $450.3 million in 2017. In 2022 Andy Warhol’s Shot Sage Blue Marilyn sold for $195 million at Christie’s and this record has now been surpassed.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for November 1, 2025)
MARK ROTHKO (1903-1970) – No. 31 (Yellow Stripe)
Great depth of bidding, numerous artist records, and palpable energy marked the opening night of Christie’s Marquee Week in New York, where the auction house achieved exceptional results for two premier sales: The Collection of Robert F. and Patricia G. Ross Weis and the 20th Century Evening Sale. In a packed, energetic saleroom at Rockefeller Center, and with active online bidders, the two sales achieved a total of $689,795,000 million, were 96% sold by lot, 97% sold by value.
The top lot of the evening was Mark Rothko’s No. 31 (Yellow Stripe) from the Weis collection. It work sold for $62,160,000 to a bidder on the phone after a fierce four-minute and 40-second bidding battle—also securing the highest online bid ever for a live auction at Christie’s. Another highlight of the collection was La Lecture, a portrait of Marie-Therese by Pablo Picasso which made $45,485,000.
The top lot from the 20th Century Evening sale was Claude Monet’s Nymphéas from the collection of Japan’s Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art. It made $45,485,000
Two 90 Gun Ships of the Line entering Cork Harbour by George Mounsey Wheatley Atkinson at Morgan O’Driscoll’s sale on November 24 should arouse much interest. It adorned the cover of Peter Murray’s book Maritime Paintings of Cork written to coincide with a popular exhibition of the same name at the Port of Cork hq in 2005 and is one of Atkinson’s more ambitious works. With three masts, steam engines and single funnels these are an early manifestation of steam driven warships. As they enter the harbour following another steamship a frigate with sails unfurled is leaving. It is flying the Blue Peter, known as the departure flag. A cutter in the foreground is possibly the Cork pilot boat.
UPDATE: THIS MADE 25,000 AT HAMMER
A 15th century Northern European altarpiece is among the highlights at Sheppards sale in Durrow on November 25 and 26. More than 1,200 lots of fine and decorative art, silver, furniture and sculpture drawn from Irish and international collections will be on offer including a Qing Dynasty silk wall hanging from Abbeyleix House. The altarpiece is estimated at €25,000-€45,000.
UPDATE: THIS MADE €36,000 AT HAMMER
The winter art sale season with a feast in store is kick started in Ireland this weekend by Art Source at the RDS. With more than 200 artists and galleries this is Ireland’s largest art fair with a huge selection of affordable art. Highlights include a portrait of Mick Jagger by Andy Warhol and work by Tracey Emin exhibited by Gormleys. Expected to draw more than 15,000 visitors the event features the Irish debut of Naples based Fonderia Artistica Ruocco.
This is a prelude to the season’s major sales of important Irish art. An online sale by Morgan O’Driscoll on November 24 with highlights by Yeats, O’Malley, Blackshaw and George Mounsey Wheatley Atkinson will be followed by Dublin auctions by de Veres and Gormleys on November 25. Roderic O’Conor, William Leech, Paul Henry, Yeats and Mainie Jellett are at de Veres. Adams on November 26 offers art by Paul Henry, Yeats, Harry Clarke, Camille Souter, Gerard Dillon, Mary Swanzy and Hughie O’Donoghue. Among the highlights at Whyte’s on December 1 is work by John Luke, Paul Henry, Grace Henry, Frank McKelvey, Louis le Brocquy, Rowan Gillespie, Donald Teskey and John Behan.
Nature Morte by Roderic O’Conor at de Veres. UPDATE: THIS MADE 115,000 AT HAMMER
Art Source, Ireland’s largest art fair, is at the RDS from November 14-16. It offers a selection of affordable art and a range of pieces from artists like Tracey Emin and Andy Warhol. The event will feature the Irish debut of Fonderia Artistica Ruocco – a foundry from Naples, Italy. And spray-paint artist Hernán González and mural artist SOLUS will bring Dublin street art to the RDS.
A SMALL GILT ENAMEL CLOISONNE ‘TAOTIE’ MASK VASE AND COVER, MARKED QIANLONG
This mid Qing Dynasty gilt mask vase and cover made a hammer price of €24,000 at the James Adam sale of Fine Asian Art in Dublin today. Measuring just 8.8 centimetres high and weighing 87 grams it had been estimated at €1,500-€1,800 and the final hammer price is more than 13 times the top estimate. A taotie is an ancient Chinese mythological creature. A pair of 20th century carved cinnabar lacquer vases made €15,000 at hammer over a top estimate of €1,500 and a blue and white porcelain Korean storage jar made €16,000 over a top estimate of €5,000.
GERRIT DOU (LEIDEN 1613-1675) – The Flute Player UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £3,832,000 (€4,353,152).
With an estimate of £2-£3 million The Flute Player by Gerrit Dou will lead Christie’s Old Masters sale in London on December 2. Dou, like his teacher Rembrandt, was among the most successful Dutch artists of the seventeenth century, attracting patrons such as Cosimo III de’ Medici, and with works presented to Charles II of England. An early masterpiece from his relatively small and highly sought-after oeuvre, this vanitas – a still-life charged with symbolic meaning – alludes to music, learning and the brevity of life. Painted with microscopic detail and an enamel-like finish that conceals all trace of the brush, it exemplifies the extraordinary technical precision that made Dou one of the most acclaimed painters of his age. The picture has been in a celebrated English collection for 125 years, having belonged to William Proby, 5th Earl of Carysfort (1836–1909) at Elton Hall by 1900. It has remained in the family since.
Christie’s achieved the world auction record for Gerrit Dou in 2023 with A young woman holding a hare with a boy at a window, which achieved $7 million in the Rothschild Masterpieces sale.
The Lark Sings High, an oil on board by Jack B Yeats, at Bonhams. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £95,650
The Lark Sings High by Jack B Yeats is at Bonhams Modern British and Irish art sale in London on November 19. Measuring 9 x 14 inches it is from a private collection in the UK. The estimate is £50,000-£70,000 (€57,000-€80,000).