No less than five seminal works by Lucio Fontana from a private German collection, along with pieces by Alberto Giacometti and Sam Francis, will lead the Contemporary evening sale at Sotheby’s in London on March 4. The seven works have a combined estimate of £15 million.
Sotheby’s describe it as the most complete survey of Fontana’s groundbreaking research to come to market in recent memory.
The breadth of Fontana’s experimentation during his most revolutionary years is exposed in work ranging from early punctures that questioned the confines of the picture plane to the dramatic cuts that transformed gesture into a three dimensional space. Most were acquired through the avant garde Galerie Schmela in Dusseldorf, where the inaugural 1957 exhibition included the then unknown 29 year old Yves Klein. Fontana’s first solo exhibition here in 1960 was as influential as it was innovative. His language quickly resonated far beyond Europe, informing the work of artists like Klein, Anish Kapoor, Robert Irwin, Olafur Eliasson and James Turrell. In their own way each extended the spatial and perceptual possibilities opened by Fontana.
The concept of a vampire being long in the tooth is a seductive one but 145 year old Louis de Pointe du Lac is not just any old vampire. The fans of this successful tv icon can hardly contain themselves over an Irish auction which draws to a close from 6 pm tomorrow on February 15.
Gothic Horror, vampire chic, a Louisiana setting and no less than 14 coffins from a fiver up feature in the timed online sale by Sean Eacrett at Ballybrittas, Co. Laois.
A boxed and cased pair of Versace sunglasses.
His latest auction of film paraphernalia is for AMC, the American cable channel. It is described as a prop auction from film and tv shows. Mr Eacrett is precluded from even mentioning Interview with the Vampire, the show that propelled the aforementioned Louis, his vampire lover Lestat de Lioncourt and Lestat’s daughter Claudia to stardom.
But there is no disguising it. The tiniest bit of laptop sleuthing reveals all. Available lots feature the Versace sunglasses worn by Louis, Lestat’s coffin, Claudia’s diary, Lestat’s business cards, Louisiana number plates, copies of The Times-Picayune and all sorts of props used by the characters in the series. The cybersphere is agog. “I need these like oxygen” wrote one breathless fan on Reddit.
Interview with the Vampire is based on the life story of Louis, an affluent black man and brothel owner in New Orleans in the 1910’s as told to veteran journalist Daniel Molloy in Dubai in 2022. He had previously given Molloy an unpublished interview in 1973. It explores New Orleans and surrounding plantation life in the 18th and 19th centuries. The story, based on The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice, premiered in October 2022 with two seasons. There was a third in 2024 and there will be a fourth season later this year.
A Times-Picayune dated July 30, 1919
One of the most expensively estimated lots, at €200-€400, is a very large black lacquered high gloss dining table from a Netflix series. A very large oil on canvas of the Dubai skyline is estimated at just €100-€200, as is an L shaped corner sofa, a faux fireplace from Lestat’s house in New Orleans and a silvered six branch chandelier. Most estimates are lower than this. A group of haberdashery hat boxes is among a number of items with estimates of €20-€40. A quantity of water canisters is estimated at €10-€20, as is a group of four heavy timber theatre prop eyes and plenty of other items.
This is a fun sale of 684 lots from an auctioneer who has previously sold props for TV series like Badlands, The Vikings, Game of Thrones. For this auction an undead and decidedly cheerful Sean Eacrett has made a must see 27 second long Tik Tok video of himself emerging from a coffin and donning a pair of sunglasses. Every vampire hates the light. There will be fees of course, but based on low enough hammer prices. Since when are vampires supposed to be nice….
A photograph sent to Christie’s request an auction estimate portal by an unsuspecting owner resulted in a $27.2 million (€23.02 million) sale in New York last week. The previously unknown red chalk study for a foot of the Libyan Sibyl in the Sistine Chapel made nearly 20 times its low estimate and set a record for a Michelangelo drawing. It measures just five and a quarter inches in height. A black chalk study for a leg with bent knee is on the back. Christie’s specialist Giada Damen identified it as an original drawing by Michelangelo, done in preparation for the right foot of the monumental figure at the far east end of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The art brought multiple bidders in the room, on the phone and online to a 45 minute bidding battle at the sale of Old Master and British Drawings.
Henry Moore’s seminal work King and Queen will be a highlight at Christie’s 20th/21st Century: London evening sale on March 5. It has been in the same British collection for the past 70 years. Conceived in 1952–53, the sculpture was first cast in an edition of four plus an artist’s cast. This is the only remaining example still in private hands; all other casts are held in major public collections, including the Moa Museum of Art, Atami; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.; the Middelheim Museum, Antwerp; and the Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena. Two subsequent casts were produced specifically for the Tate Collection (1957) and The Henry Moore Foundation (1985). The estimate is £10 million – £15 million.
A heart shaped pendant necklace. UPDATE: THIS MADE €500 at hammer
Romantics will be interested in a heart shaped pendant in two tone white and yellow ten carat gold at Hegarty’s in Bandon, Co. Cork on February 11 – just in time for St. Valentine’s Day. Estimated at €600-€800 it is one of a number of jewellery pieces in an online auction that gets underway at 11 am.
The sale offers a selection of silver and art. There is bound to be local interest in Dusk, The Ferryman’s Inn, Cork by Arthur Maderson whose impressionistic works are always sought after. The gouache on board is estimated at €6,000-€8,000. In Kells, Co. Meath Matthews will offer 660 lots of mostly jewellery with some coins with estimates from from €20 to €7,000 on February 10.
Chess pieces created by Graham Knuttel. UPDATE: THE TABLE AND CHESS SET MADE €40,000
Affordable art and one expensive rarity feature at online sales ending at Adam’s and de Veres in Dublin next week. A collector wishing to enhance their holding or someone wanting to dip their toe into the market will find these sales a great place to uncover the unending joy and discovery of a journey into art. First get the eye in shape, then learn how to look. Who knows where it will lead?
The expensive rarity that is lot five at the timed online Graham Knuttel II sale at Adam’s which ends from 2 pm on February 10 is a limited edition chess table with a silver and bronze chess set from around 2003. One of an edition of 12 it was designed by artist Graham Knuttel (1954-2023) and furniture maker David Linley, first cousin of King Charles III. The square table with marquetry chess board top is by Linley, the black and white silver and bronze chess pieces by Knuttel. The estimate is €50,000-€80,000.
Everything else in this auction of 123 lots is more affordable. Estimates are from €300 up and most works are to be sold without reserve. There is a large selection of signed prints by the popular Dublin artist whose striking and distinctive art was collected by various celebrities and who designed stamps for An Post to commemorate the Beijing summer olympics of 2008.
His themes have become familiar and his colourful art features cats, fish, birds, sheep, chefs, portraits and sculpture.
The Sinking of the Titanic by Graham Knuttel UPDATE: THIS MADE €14,000 at hammer
The most expensively estimated painting is a relatively cheerful (under the adverse circumstances) work titled The Sinking of the Titanic with a deep blue sea, four calm characters in lifebuoy rings with bottles of some sort of hooch, circling sharks, a distant iceberg and the elevated stern of doomed ship. The estimate for this oil on canvas with disaster everywhere is €10,000-€15,000.
William Crozier, Elizabeth Brophy, Richard Croft, Michael Farrell, George Campbell, Brian Bourke, Hilda Van Stockum, Sean McSweeney and Barbara Warren are all featured at the timed online auction at de Veres which ends from 2 pm on February 11. Estimates range from €100 to €3,000.
It is an interesting selection with work by artists who might not be as well known as they deserve to be. Still Life, Red Teapot and Apples by Richard Croft (1935-2025), President of the Royal Ulster Academy from 1997-2000, is estimated at €600-€900. En Andeche et la Ruche from the Paris Press Series by Michael Farrell (1940-2000) is at €2,000-€3,000 the most expensively estimated work in the auction. It dates to 1977-78. Farrell represented Ireland at the Biennale de Paris in 1967 and there was a retrospective of his work at the Crawford in 2013-14.
The catalogue, which is online, will reward a slow trawl. Art which makes gazillions grabs headlines and can create the incorrect impression that the art market is the preserve of the rich. These two sales demonstrate that this is not the case. Get the eye in and good art can be acquired for little more than the cost of a night out in 2026.
Still Life, Red Teapot and Apples by Richard Croft at de Veres.
ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI (ROME 1593 – AFTER 1654 NAPLES) – Self-Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria. CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LTD. 2026
There was a new world record for Artemisia Gentileschi at Christie’s Old Master’s sale in New York last night. Self Portrait as St. Catherine of Alexandria made $5,687,000 in an auction that brought in $54,130,050, the highest total for an Old Master’s auction in New York for over a decade. The auction was 118 percent sold hammer and buyer’s premium against low estimate and 84 percent by lot. Among the notable results were Canaletto’s view of the Venetian Lagoon during a well-known annual celebration, Venice, the Bucintoro at the Molo on Ascension Day, which made $30,535,000. This result follows on the heels of Christie’s sale in London on 1 July, 2025 when the auction house set a world record for a Canaletto with a different version of the same view, which made GBP 31,935,000 ($43,851,545).
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for July 1, 2025 and January 10, 2026)
The unsettling ambiguity of La plaine de l’air (1940) by Magritte resonated strongly with critics when exhibited at Galerie Dietrich in Brussels in 1941. Painted at a moment when Europe was being engulfed by conflict it shows a single oversized leaf grafted onto a trunk set against a stark mountain landscape. The leaf, one of Magritte’s most distinctive and recurring motifs, introduces a solitary, watchful presence and channels all the tension of the early Second World War. Estimated at £3.5-£5.5 million (€4.03-€6.33 million) it features at Modern Visionaries – the Roger and Josette Vanthournout Collection at Christie’s in London on March 5 and 6 plus an online auction. Assembled over six decades their collection, with an overall estimate is in the region of £40 million (€46 million), spans almost 150 years and ranges from symbolism, Belgian expressionism and surrealism to post war avant garde, minimalism to modern and contemporary British art.
A Dublin made bombe marquetry bureau at Woodwards. UPDATE: THIS MADE €1,600 AT HAMMER
One of the more distinctive lots of furniture at Woodwards auction in Cork on February 7 is a bombe marquetry bureau. The word bombe in furniture describes a curved front and or sides and this bureau was made in Dublin around 1870 by PJ Walsh & Sons. Woodwards estimate it at €2,000-€2,500.
The sale, with contents from a Cork convent and residences in Rochestown and Bishopstown, offers antique furniture including a Georgian walnut chest on chest and a Georgian longcase clock by Houghtons of Handsworth each estimated at €600-€1,000. A Victorian library or serving table (€400-€600), a William IV teapoy (€600-€1,000), a crossbanded rosewood card table (€400-€600), an Art Deco conservatory table (€600-€1,000) and a Victorian three tier dumb waiter (€400-€600) feature in a selection that includes art, glassware, a cast iron garden bench and a large portrait of a lady carrying a mask. The catalogue is online.
A large portrait of a lady with mask at Woodwards. Therein lies a story. UPDATE: THIS MADE €140 AT HAMMER
Classic Ford sign among the automobilia collectibles. UPDATE: THIS MADE €840 AT HAMMER
Collectibles are a major up a coming category in Ireland and there will be plenty to choose from at three days of sales by Aidan Foley in Doneraile on the evenings of February 2, 3 and 4. The online sale on Tuesday evening features two lifetime collections of automobilia with 277 lots in total including dealership signs, enamel signs, oil cans, banners and petrol globes. An oval Esso forecourt sign and a Munster Simms Oil cabinet are of particular interest. Mondays sale offers antique furniture, jewellery and art by Ivan Sutton, Graham Knuttel, Marie Carroll and others. There will be 150 lots pub memorabilia on offer on Wednesday. The catalogue is online.
